Poem: Children Locked Away

The world's insensitivity to Africa just stuns me and this poem comes out of that.

Children Locked Away They grew up in my neighborhood,     but I can’t say I knew them well Beautiful young girls, young women now     Libya with dark wide eyes,     Algeria always smiling,     Angola the shy one, suddenly gone Remembering Namibia, slender and quiet,     Somalia, who always knew my name,     Namibia, the one who so loved flowers     And Ghana, a child full of games And Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria, a blur     of flashing eyes and giggled grins Young women from different families     a little Brit, a little French     some Portuguese, perhaps a smudge     of German and Italian All dark skinned girls, the mix     gave them a haunted, exotic beauty I walked that way to share their childhood,     the whole street brightened in a swirl     of new dresses and girlish laughter Yet they were serious as well, trusting     as young girls will, on their way     to becoming the loveliest of women Now suddenly they’re gone from us, locked away     into a dark house, it’s windows shuttered,     unlit and decaying, a house called Africa I walked their street for a while, looking,     hoping they’d be out in sunshine     to greet me, smile and dart away I hear them scream from upstairs rooms,     tear stained bloodied faces looking out,     then curtains all snatched shut and darkness I’d kick down the doors, excepting for the fear     of the raped children I might find there So I’ve forgot their names and walk another street

This poem is included in Jim Freeman's poetry collection BROKEN PIECES available here in print or as an e-Book in your favorite formats.