Take me in
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I remember you singing me lullabies,
I remember playing on your knee.
I can see you holding me as I fell,
From a wall when I tried to leap.
The whole night when we stayed awake,
Your fairy tales for me.
I was the princess of my dreams,
I was what I knew as me.
When I lost myself down that dark river,
I held my hands out for you.
It's so dark here; I can't see
I'm somewhere lost below.
I shouted until my voice couldn't be heard,
I shouted until you believed the truth.
Everybody's looking for answers but no one believes me.
It's a strange place to live in, a strange place to rule.
My hands are tired, knocking on your door.
Won't you take me in, father? And put me to sleep?
I just want someone to see, I can't ask no more.
When you looked for monsters, under my bed,
Little did I know that they existed -
On innocent souls forever they feasted.
They scarred the pure bodies to be called sinful.
Without a right, every girl they did rule.
They did worse than murder, worse than killing.
They kept me alive, left me for healing.
These scars though invisible, these scars though impure
These scars now mark me, make me sure.
I lay on the floor screaming as they drank my soul,
I sank into oblivion as they took my light.
A body to be hated, a body to be killed.
I'm such a burden, dead like the night.
Please hear me out, it's not my fault.
I don't even know where my body was found,
I went to sleep shouting in pain,
I woke up on an empty road
Passed out naked, by a drain.
The police don't hear me, the people can't bear me.
They remain victorious in their glory.
I'm still knocking on your door to tell you,
I'm fighting to stay here, hanging low.
My pleas remain unheard, hidden in the shadows.
Such dark days are here, no one wants the truth.
Cries are muffled, lost in the echoes.
The writer, 13, is a grade VII student
at S.F.X Greenherald International School.
ILLUSTRATION: ZOHEB MASHIUR
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