The past repeats itself

In looking back to these words from 1999, I see that little has changed. This is so very sad.

4 Girl Stories (horror and hope)

I

Beneath a colourful boubou,

a mischievous smile breaks through;

fuse tradition with a modem cloth.

Her father has 3 wives and 30 children; against him,

she goes to school and will marry who she chooses.

She questions tribal elders,

not accepting their dubious words, she uncovers truth

and will not be mutilated as have sisters and cousins.

Perhaps she will become a doctor or lawyer

or journalist in Senegal.

II

Kidnapped at 12 by rebel gunmen

while fetching water for her family,

she is molded into pack mules to carry,

sex slaves to service, baby soldiers to kill.

For 5 years she hears only

hatefearviolencepowerrapeshooting

inside and out.

As one of 9 wives to a cruel captain,

she escapes Uganda by running running

running until midnight. Now she sews

and bakes and laughs and

tries to trust again.

III

For generations, the women in her family have been

prostitutes;

descendants of women who earned their living dancing

for Indian princes and kings; their men, solely dependent,

have no skills with which to provide

a loaf of day-old bread.

Her older brother intervenes, protecting her

from the familial path. Now she lives

in a mud house (beside the toilet,

an open field) and earns a living as she crafts

embroidered purses --

3 a day for a dollar.

Someday she will give her daughter the best

with the little she has.

IV

Her effects: a generous smile, an infectious laugh, 3 dresses, 1 pair of slippers;

her diet: bread, rice, lentils;

her home: a thatched roof house of clay and wood with

no running water or electricity.

She raises her younger sister (her mother has TB), cooks

and cleans for a family of 6,

sweeps the floor,

fetches water,

makes tea and breakfast,

harvests rice, potatoes, oil seed.

To be the only girl her age to go to school shows

her determination; as an educated girl,

her dowry will be high; as a social worker,

she will change the lives of other village girls

in Nepal

in health,

in education,

in discrimination

on this paltry earth.

© Catherine Woods 1999, 2017