Children are God’s given gift
To us they come to bless
Why do you neglect them?
Why do you subject them
To unwarranted suffering,
To pain day in day out?
Why do you waste their potential?
Stop child labour.
As dawn approaches
The horizon gives birth
The sun stretches its long golden hands
Eating the carpet of dew
Into sheer nothingness
A new day
Full of expectations and hope
For a poor African child
Born to suffer
Brought up to persevere
But getting nothing in return
Nothing
Do this!! Do that!!
Are the commands
From the very parents mouth
From east or south
Real or adapted
This is what they say.
In pain and no gain
While the age is tender
Are out of school to work
Oblivious of whale and shark
Regardless of will and like
In coffee and tea plantations
In the sculpture and bricks excavations
In miraa and rice harvesting
Under the scorching rays of the sun
“chai! Papa! Mama!”
He says
He runs through intense traffic jam
Threatening with stinking human waste
For somebody to throw a coin
Half naked but not sorry for it
Up and down Koinange Street
Selling her body to strangers
Just for money
I say for money.
Before the chest shows up
Sold to a stinking old grandpa
For the father to get bride wealth.
In utter disregard
Of Jane ’s
human rights
Children need care
Education is their core
Stop child labour
© Tabu Bin Tabu 2009
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