With God As My Witness

In my land that they called Paradise, It was but a usual day.
I was hopping down the lane, cradling my doll of clay.

I knew I needed to run, or I would be really late.
The game had even begun, for it was already eight.

One thing I had been told, was I needed to be home soon.
Ammi and Baba would worry, if I wasn’t  home before the noon.

But the man who walked beside me, why did he walk so strange?
Why was he giving me looks, like something was about to change?

I knew I shouldn’t trust, this man that I didn’t know.
Who knew what he was hiding? What was he scared to show?

Still in my own worry, of whether or not I should run,
I felt a hand pull me back, and I knew their job was done.

I was carried across the lane, while I begged them to let me go.
They told me that this was the only, way my tribe would finally know.

I didn’t understand what they said, yet I continued to struggle free.
They forced a thing down my mouth and there was nothing that I could see.

When I finally was awake, from the deep sleep that I was in,
I opened my eyes and knew, that they had all indulged in sin.

There were Gods all around me, and they watched me in despair.
A child had been destroyed, but now how could they repair?

Their eyes couldn’t believe, that even their man had a part,
In ruining a youthful child, in tearing her apart.

I was in enormous pain, unlike anything I knew before.
Like I had a lost a thing in me, who knew even four.

Those men came back again, and each one of them wore a grin.
They gloated about their crime, boasted of their sin.

One of them, a man of God, said how he had enjoyed,
When he found an innocent child, and with her he had toyed.

The other two I knew, for they protected my own land,
The policemen who had gagged me and twisted about my hand.

Then there were some more, who said they were safe and needn’t worry.
For the law was in their hands, and the courts weren’t in any hurry.

One more of them laughed, and said not a worry he had had.
No soul would dare to touch him, for he was the all-favourite lad.

Seven of them around me, each drooled like a hungry dog.
They let me pass out again, for there was still more left to hog.

As I slipped into sleep again, I looked for who to blame.
Should it be the ones who watched, or the ones they couldn’t tame?

Though my mind was all drugged, a vow I couldn’t forget,
My Baba would begin to worry, Ammi would begin to fret.

I had made them a promise, to return home before the noon,
I knew it was really late for I could already see the moon.

#JusticeForAsifa