Born out of wedlock
And still the only child
In a poor family
Where survival was the order of the day
My mother was a hawker
Selling sweets and biscuits
My father jobless
With nowhere left to search
What could a teenage girl like me do
When there was nothing left to do
As one man can change the world
So did daddy
Who now had secrets to keep
Leaving home at dusk
Just to come back at dawn
We moved from our iron house
To a posh one
With cosy beds
And ready-made sheds
We both wondered
But could not reach, “No wonder…”
One dull morning
Dad came back as usual
His breath smelt alcohol
And he staggered to walk
He indeed was drunk
Where did the money come from?
He spoke recklessly
And revealed about his drug dealing work
Where he would steal some for himself
He battered my mother
Leaving her half-dead
As I wept bitterly in a corner
With nothing to do
There and then, our door was banged
“Police! On the ground!” was what we heard
Daddy was arrested
And sentenced to life imprisonment
Mummy was hospitalized
And died of a comma
I remain a loner and alone
With no one to turn to
That was daddy’s fate
And mother’s inevitable
What about my future
What about my dream
What about me?
About the Author
