Never been much of a TV buff

Those soaps, quizzes and reality stuff

Though last night brought my tears

Made me forget my own pitiful fears

A show demanding that its viewers give

As it showed how some children live

Portrayed are a group of young girls

But no pretty ribbons in golden curls

Nor any childish screams in play

Because they must work this day

A rock loaded basket in one’s hands

No complaint, it’s all she understands

To live, this is what she must do

BUT THIS CHILD IS ONLY TWO!!

I know many countries fail their poor

Where streets become a running sewer

Commonly down to a Western debt

But India carries a nuclear threat

And the colossal cost that that entails

Sorry! Here my comprehension fails!

Two young brothers and a newborn child

Enough to drive any parent wild

But this falls in our modern time

On an African boy of barely nine

For him no childish escapades

Not with parents fresh dead of Aids

These are but two sample cases

Highlighting only a couple of places

Of others we know far too many

So please pledge that extra penny