Someone's Child Poem by Deluke Muwanigwa

Someone's child

I have seen emanciated ghostly looking children. I think they are, children. I think they are someone's child forsaken.

They live on the edge of the river
The raw water reeking of sewage,
carrying flotsam of deadly disease. Here, the ghostly figures gleefully woefully recreate. Like i said, i think they are children. I think they are someone's child forsaken.

A lost generation condemned to perpetual hunger,
hunger whose causal rationale they do not understand.
Born in the streets, sleeping in the sewers.
When they succumb to preventable disease, their comrades-in-suffering simply shove them in the river,
and go back to their cherished sewer abodes where they sleep,
piled up like bales of tobacco,
oft times never to wake up.

Like i said, i think they are children.Someone's child forsaken.

The state doesnt know them. They never got a birth certificate. When they die there is no death certificate.
Therefore, there is no problem.

But, like i said, i think they are children. Somone's child forsaken.

Orphans abused often,
ignored by their parents,
ignored by miracle working pastors
ignored by pot bellied politicians
Ignored by the state
ignored by Africa,
ignored by the world.

Someone's child forsaken. I think they are children.