Sue Vincent of Daily Echo has triggered me to remember this poem I wrote For Child Abuse Month in 2012. I thought it would be fitting for #International Children’s Day. Thank you Sue. I protest too.
No Weep For Your Mother
Photo Credits Google images.
They came in the night, they made the women scream like animals. Then they killed the men, then they cut the breasts off of the women with babies, then they burnt the men’s bodies the village and the crops. Some of them were men, but more were children boys and girls.. with angelic faces, dead eyes , tight curly hair and machetes and gun.
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They came in the night they caused a terrible fright. They butchered the men and raped the women again and again then cut off the breasts of the mothers with babies. They shot those that ran like a dog with rabies.
They rounded us up, those under five they did not leave alive but us that could walk they took. The last sight we had of our sweet lives was the flames of our village, the last sight for those brave enough to look.
No weep for your brother, no weep for your father or mother no weep or they beat you boy. Now you be a soldier you carry a gun say goodbye to happy days no more joy no more fun. You learn to shoot, you learn fast, you do as you are told you do not get asked. You sleep when your told you march till you drop if you do good you get a blanket to keep out the night’s cold.
You learn how to throw a grenade and set a mine then you learn to watch as people die from famine. You learn no pity you learn only pain what ever you can get is someone’s loss but now it’s your gain. You eat when the big boys say eat. If you take too much or steal it you get beat.
photo credits http://www.rowthree.com/
They don’t just take us boys they take girls too and what’s worse they have to sleep with the men and they get babies which is a curse. They have to do all that we have to do but don’t worry what the men do to them they sometimes do to us too.
We have to kill without mercy, burn villages and crops , us boys and the girls right up until their babies drop. No good looking frightened that will not save you, no good being pretty or cute that don’t bode well for you.
We loose what love we had, it is replaced by the gun and for long hot days in the sun covered in blood eventually you forget your mum. No chance for learning at school we are soldiers now on the road stealing and killing……… now isn’t that cool. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They came in the night, they made the women scream like animals. Then they killed the men, then they cut the breasts off of the women with babies, then they burnt the men’s bodies the village and the crops. Some of them were men, but more were children boys and girls.. with angelic faces, dead eyes , tight curly hair and machetes and guns.
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Child soldiers, taken from their villages, boys and girls both. Taken , used and abused. Beaten , hardened until they have no feelings. Girls forced in to marriage and made pregnant still take part in raids..pregnant or carrying babies on their backs. Boys treated no better abused and hardened . Another horrible type of Child Abuse