What is it that makes you better than me?
Don’t we all have two arms, two legs, hands and feet?
Don’t we all have a face that we dress with a smile or frown? Why is it OK for you to turn my happiness upside down?
Are our bones not all covered with beautiful skin?
And all come in different sizes, be it wide, tall or slim?
Why is it I matter so little to you
And you value so little I say, show or do?
Do you not have a family that you love,
with a mum and dad to cuddle, little brother to shove?
Why is it my family matters so much less?
And you stand and you watch as they make us undress?
We were dragged from our homes by force and in strife,
And you believed we meant less on this path we call life.
Does my childhood matter so much less than yours?
No more school, no more fun, no more knocks on our door. Do I never deserve to share a first kiss ‐
Not to mention all the other firsts I shall miss?
Is it OK that we were forced onto trains,
spending months in the dirt, surrounded by drains?
Then you stripped us and showered us and left us there bare. That not being enough, you then shaved off our hair.
As the doors closed behind us, stripped of our pride,
it’s cold and it’s frightening and then the lights die.
Why does your life matter so much more than mine?
I close my eyes now, in the hopes in years to come I will shine.

By ASIA, 11

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