At a tender age she bares the burdens in the home.
Catering to her younger siblings,
Supervising the domestic staffs,
Taking account of the inventory,
And attending to visitors,
While her parents sleeps all day after a night-out, or the other sleeps out after his dinner.

Since she is physically strong, extremely caring and emotionally sensitive,
Her dysfunctional parents will do whatever it takes to keep her on her feet.
Forgetting that she is just a child with a developing brain.

Without a second thought,
She is the one who caters to her drunk father when he shows up late,
Waves goodbye at her mum, whenever it was a night out with the girls,
and instructs the steward on what to do when no one is paying attention.
The one who opens the door for her relatives when they arrive.
And checks all security doors when everyone is asleep and before going to bed.

Won’t she be open to the advances of the house boys?
Won’t she oblige to the advances of her father?
Won’t she be prone to the harassment from her uncles?
And used to the scolding from her mother and relations?
Of course she will, as no one thought her otherwise.

She is thought to lie to defend her mother’s shortcomings,
Open to hear gossips, seeing sexual relations with her mother and her girlfriends.
Always there to witness and settle disagreements between her parents.
And her dad, hears him on the phone when he speaks to his girlfriends.
Some nights, she will have to open her legs to satisfy her father’s sexual urges.

Launching a dangerous campaign against her,
She becomes the family’s scapegoat.
All because she wants to keep the sanctuary,
Seeing that family is everything to her,
But nothing to the ones who brought her into that family.

Having no control over the situation,
The golden child is sexually, emotionally and physically abused.
Mentally damaged before the age of ten,
Beautiful young girl is already ugly inside.

Her hopes and dreams have become suppressed by dangerous narcissistic parents,
Who were supposed to protect and nurture her.
How is she supposed to face the world now with a leaking reputation,
When the burdens of the world has already consumed her safe haven.

The pillar she held on to from the age of five,
finally crumbles on her adulthood.
Now a friend to perpetrators,
And an enemy of relatives,
She sure paid the price to keep her mother’s home.
She was a single parent and they were her children.

And when she is grown enough to fight,
Finally finding her true authentic self,
The Voiceless girl-child now has a voice.
She doesn’t want family anymore,
She cannot trust a family of her own,
And hates being a part of anything.
Drugs and sex was better than what her parents had offered her.

Walking away from her entire family
Sure dug a painful hole in her heart,
But she knew she made the right choice.
Trying to reclaim control over her,
Her mentally unstable sadistic parents would say they are not proud of what she has become,
That she amounted to nothing because of the things she found refuge in.

Still blinded by their narcissist’s false self,
They take no blame or criticism,
Yet try to brainwash her into thinking she is of no good and is to be blamed.

How dare they speak!
Never seeing what she had done for them,
Never apologizing for the abuse and neglect,
They still request more from her emptiness.
What a shame!

Leave her alone.
Let her go now.
Tell her goodbye.
She has paid the ultimate sacrifice,
For the ones who were to die for her.

X pj