A Beckoning Call

A child, I lay

In waters warm,

the outside world,

feeling small.

Two beautiful souls,

with love they pledge,

a secret long gone,

a mystery, it’ll remain.

Red sparking water;

splashing around me,

as I am yanked out,

realms of destiny.

A daughter of lies,

a child of sorrow,

in a brown coir sack

knot tied, I am thrown,

into rivers of doom,

floating, drowning and swirling,

I land up on a distant shore,

yearning for love, a warm close hug,

a mother, to say ‘Amma’ to.

High stone-faced walls of dread,

grilled gates of unacceptance,

pulling me back, from my little world,

now they bring only chocolates, ‘eat my little girl’.

They don’t want to play, no touch, no saying,

a simple hello, or an I love you,

I am left to wither and wallow.

I am a child, a girl, a daughter, of mother HIV.