taking flight into morning rise
pouring clouds quicken tread
drops of cloud splatter wet
drenching heart of fear
exposed, but not by nature
thoughts batter body bruised
anguish grips flooded mind
relived under cleansing skies
lost without safety’s home
loneliness fuels solitary distress
wrapped in naked hopelessness
defeat heightens yearning's death
wind rips adulterated tatters
drops enshroud gentle form
freedom’s liberation prevails
over brutality once feared
Author notes
“As unimaginable as it seems, slavery and bondage still persist in the early 21st century. Millions of people around the world still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves. Trafficking in persons is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time.”
[U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2003]
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Hey, Frans
This is a serious and rather alarming subject to be touched on by a writer and it's a shame for something like this to still remain an issue and have it be ignored and never talked about.
I've seen documentaries on t.v. that discuss this, about millions of young girls in India, being sold to disgusting men and traded like baseball cards all because their family doesn't have enough money to live. The sad thing is, this exists in many more places than we are lead to believe.
And it's more than the daily tasks that these people have to face. They cook and clean, do backbreaking labor, sure, but they are often sexually exploited. Seems to go hand in hand. Disgusting but true.
Your poem touches on the harsh reality of this subject, one hardly understood by the mass of the American population.
'...drops of cloud splatter wet
drenching heart of fear...
exposed, but not by nature
thoughts batter body bruised...'
These lines have incredible intensity to them, and the last two stanzas do as well, even more so.
I imagine that for this to happen to someone, to a human with the same flesh and blood and emotion as I have, it would be the most destructive, depressing and scary thing that ever could happen.
It would deteriorate all of a human, on every level of being.
This was a hard hitting poem, Frans.
You got my attention, provoked thought, and deliver this unique sense of compassion through your words.
I greatly admire you for that.
Kristin
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