I awoke, and the image
Remained, was quite unchanged
After several hours of sleep
Through many depths I’d ranged
Tossed, as if by a storm
That would never cease
Guided to shore slowly
I hoped to find some peace
The picture was still vivid
So haunting, it made me cry
To forget it or to erase
I couldn’t, though I try
His little face, big brown eyes
An orphan so very young
Left alone in a war zone
Mother and father gone
Striding through a tattered camp
‘Someone, please, can you see
I have no one and nothing’
His sad face said to me
I watched a film of children
Long hours spent at school
A far eastern country making sure
No child was called a fool
All clean, fed and well dressed
Little children board a train
Having spent the day at school
Legs buckling, they start again
For thirteen hours, the older ones
Were studiously applied
Only sleeping four hours per night
Other childhood life denied
In uniforms, with mobile phones
The teens were looking fine
No time for rest or emotions
Like robots in a line
Their young lives see no joy
Restricted spirits cannot fly
The suicide rate for them is high
As many prefer to die
A film of teenagers
With freedom and no restraint
Drinking glasses of cheap booze
Until totally drunk and faint
On Kavos, a holiday island
Having sex, with no respect
For their safety or their health
Doing what their peers expect
A film of such crazy behaviour
Though intelligent their brains
Quite at odds in every way
With their well stated aims
Everything given on a plate
Yet its value is not seen
Having what others do not know
Putting at risk what might have been
They followed no 'highway' code
These children could not drive
Their bus could leave the open road
And into deep waters dive
In the space of a few days
I watched these three films of news
Each was, to me, showing
Different forms of child abuse
Not the ones usually regarded
As warranting that name
But doing harm to children
Is damage, a total shame
Advancement, ‘what teens do’
Or the results of strife
But in every case directing
A different path in life
The tips of different shadows
Can turn daytime into night
It is the adults, not the children
Who should maintain life’s light
Children did not ask to be born
Upon this divergent earth
Whatever lottery they must face
All should have equal worth
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