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A young girl knocks on your window
as a left over tear dries on her cheek.
She's hungry to the point begging.
She's desperate to the point of eating… anything
down to the dirt off the ground...
And she asks you for change.
She reaches her hand through the window.
Hoping…Hoping...
“Please sir. Please”
Do you see her?
Her clothes are torn and her face is dirty.
She holds her baby brother in her arms.
She holds him like a mother,
but she must only be 8 years old herself.
And you wonder...
Who holds her and tells her she's beautiful,
and tells her she is loved? And tells her...
that it is going to be alright?
Is it?
She looks to you, with hope in her eyes,
hoping for more than just change,
but all she can feel in this moment
is the painful emptiness in her stomach...
Her brother quietly cries.
She’s reaching out to you.
Waiting...Waiting....
She's desperate.
She’s weak.
And she stares into your eyes...
Staring.
Hoping.
Waiting…
And suddenly...
You're overwhelmed.
Stunned.
Moved.
Burdened.
Weakened.
Nauseous.
Even Afraid.
But…
Everything seems so unreal at the same time
even as you sit there in the presence of…
her eyes staring straight back into yours.
So you close your eyes.
You turn your face away.
But she's still standing there.
Waiting....Hoping…
Could this be reality?
You're not dreaming.
It is reality…
True,
heart wrenching
reality.
Where does this guilt come from?
I sat in that car.
I couldn't look back into her eyes any longer.
I hoped that she would leave.
I even prayed that she would leave...
Why?
So I didn't have to deal with the pain of knowing that
life for too many...
is just like hers,
In a complete state of desperation.
It’s this reality that is so hard to embrace,
that I wonder if anyone ever wants to know that
It is out there.
So I pretend its not,
and I close my eyes,
and I turn away.
I don't want to know,
but…
It's still there even when I close my eyes,
and even though I'm on this side of the world now,
and she's on the other.
It's still real.
I can't see her now, but it doesn't change that...
she's sleeping on a dirt floor tonight,
and she went to bed starving tonight
and she doesn't know if she will find food tomorrow.
I can't see her now, but it doesn't change that...
she's holding her brother as he cries himself to sleep,
and her father is sick with aids
and she's never had the chance to go to school.
I can't see her now, but it doesn't change that...
She might not make it through tomorrow.
I could ignore it,
but I saw her face
and her reality.
The guilt comes from knowing that…
No one.
Anywhere.
Ever...
deserves a life like that.
Ever.
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| | Posted 4/19/2008 2:07 PM - 0 comments
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