(Imitation of Maya Angelou’s “To Beat the Child was Bad Enough”)

A wearied farm girl, alive
as rushing water, a dewy
dawn’s emerging glow,
chained by links of corruption—
by one man’s greed.
(The chance of salvation was never known.)
Labor, aching hunger, scalding sun,
her fate was sold, no hesitation.

Women drift about, sedated
by curtained beds in the “Happiness House.”
The girl exchanges her
innocence for horror. Her heart
screams, her body submits.

Now, pain wails for pity
from daggers of silence, begs for long forgotten
aches and the comfort of a summer sun.

A young girl withers, worlds away.
Enduring.