The Plight of Children Today
What looks like play for child with just toy gun,
Is not something done entirely for fun;
For, nowadays, one finds children misused,
For various reasons, and also abused.
Some buds can’t blossom into flowers good,
And beautify the plants on which they lie;
Nor landscapes, gardens or a far-off wood-
For, they are nipped early, destined to die!
Oh, what a sorry state of children now!
The world denies them freedom, basic rights;
Neglected by parents, they pine for love;
Children are prey to society’s vice-bites!
Orphaned, famished, ravished, bare-bodied, some,
Just spend their lives in pavement beggary;
Although quite beautiful and quite handsome,
They lead a miserable life that’s scary.
Why blame these kids for stealing eatables?
What will they do when hunger pangs seize them?
What can they do if offered drugs for free?
What can they do when misled by adults?
When acts of violence, TV screens display,
When scenes of taking revenge catch their eyes,
When war of words are witnessed by young minds,
Will not more children fall in vice-filled dens?
Most children love to eat and sleep and play;
They’re unable to do these things today;
Weighed down by satchel-full of books to school,
Some play truant and make their parents, ‘fool’!
And children are the victims when comes war;
Misused as jockeys for camel-race;
For less pay, working with adults at par;
You see just children with fear on their face.
Gun-toting children in military dress,
They have no parents to love or caress;
They learn to fight and shoot under duress;
Some, homosexual victims, in harness!
Child is the father of man tomorrow;
Most children live in dangers and sorrow;
Some leave their homes, when young akin sparrows;
Some toil by pushing carts and wheel-barrows!
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poem by John Celes (2008)
Added by Poetry Lover
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