What hope?

I wrote this poem about my friend. Tragically, her story is not unique.


Once upon a time and once upon a place

there lived a very pretty girl with a very pretty face. 

She was the fairest in the village, obedient and wise

Hard working like her mother, the prize of one man's eyes. 

She always did the planting and took care of the cows

but on the day she turned fifteen, was forced to say her wedding vows.

That one man came and got her. He took her as his wife.

That's the way things work out here; girls have no choice in life. 

He gave her all the housework and she never had a say 

In return she gave him a child by her next birthday.  

Along came another, making them a family of four
But the next thing she knew, he was walking out the door.

"I'm heading off to Saudi to find better pay.
This village can't sustain us. We need a better way."

So then and there he left her to find a better life,
But when he got to Saudi, he found a better wife.

Daily she feels alone, ever haunted by her shame
with two little mouths to feed- but not a penny to her name.

She has been defiled. She has nowhere to return.
The girls in her village never had a chance to learn.

With no chance to re-marry and no real education
She moved her kids to the city to start a new vocation.

She only had one option. There was no other way.
She would go to the brothel where men would come and pay.