Breathing through a cigarette
Staring
Through a filter of smoke
Hands hard
A little girl, fingers curling nervously
Stands at her side
Eyes carefully empty
Except around the edges
Where she watches
Other boys with sullen eyes
Dropped lips
Glaring through fringes turned into cowlicks
By damp palms shoving them up up and out of the way
Bikes half cocked
Ready to rock
Endlessly patrolling streets
They’ve got a home that they carefully return to
Sometimes…
7&8
Going on 32
Ages are insignificant
The years roll by
Amount to nothing
Lessons learned early
What to avoid
What to hate
A world with nothing in it
But what you take
Work is for the entitled
Idle
Is for those with no name
Who live in a system that deals in shame
Shoves problems under a carpet and casts blame
On every other Government department
And we all nod and judge
Offer narrow advice
Still
I see those 4 year old empty eyes
And think
There must be another way
*An infinite loop in software programming means something that is set to code and then it just keeps repeating
The feeling
Is that it will never go away
Until something fundamental changes
A few weeks ago, an 11 year old aboriginal girl took her own life, she had been repeatedly raped for most of her sad little childhood
Violence and abuse is endemic in the more isolated communities
Probably everywhere really
I wouldn’t know, I live an entitled life, whereby I live with purpose and passion and continue to grow and learn and expand my knowledge
Some people are never given even a glimpse of hope and happiness
The idea that their lives could be big and broad and wonderful simply never enters into their heads
So sad
*I wrote this two weeks ago and didn’t post – I don’t know why, it didn’t have a happy ending perhaps
This afternoon on a completely different agenda my path crossed with those “sullen eyed boys”
Who I was with might have made all the difference – faces wreathes in smiles they settled in around her like birds, all talking at once
An extraordinary story
An extraordinary woman
I can’t wait to bring you her story Issue 4 – next month. Some times I pinch myself as to my life right now as it feels like it is turning inside out. The gold was on the lining, all the time.
