Selling of the Child to the Monster

Whisper in my ear
Subtle, like you’re not there
Cause you aren’t here
Like my future,
Like my present
I do not exist
Because food comes
If I can use my lips
As a means to eat.
When some use their hands,
Others, their minds,
I throw my skills out
As if they are clothes
And I serve you
With all of me
To consume my dreams

My poverty is sweet to you
Because you can lick me
And it is the only chance
I feel warmth
My land has been raped
With nothing to protect me
And so I am left alone
To fend for my life.

Who is this man who comes
To my village
Telling me his way is better
He comes from the paved road
And I watch him from my thatched mat
That has been my support
All my life

Now I lie upon a spring mattress
Its material is now worn
And stryrofome peek through ugly
Like mens’ eyes through windows
I am a doll that is lifeless
and cannot make my support
Instead they pull me by strings

They keep coming hungry
But their bellies are filled
Tongues reek of fish sauce and coconut milk
Dogs, they lick my bones of starvation
they treat me as an animal
But it is they who are caged in greed.

They say it is not my struggle
To speak out against what men do
I must lay and accept the truth
Of being poor
Stolen, my virginity
Robbed, my country
Deprived, my humanity

Who are they to take insatiably?
Fathers and sons to women and daughters
Manhood of nations
Stealing the origin of life
Exhaustion of self love
Shall demonize the body
And kill all around
Until no one is left but the monster.