What lies told he to you?
your mind, he has played with
and your dreams, to an end he
he brings it. Dreams that the light
of day, would have seen.
The world promised him to you.
The love he professed, calling you sweet names,
the things you never had, he poured at your feet.
Gently like a rat, you got caught in his trap.
About his kind, did mama warn you?
aye indeed, mama told you to stay away. Mama said gold you are and
you are to be priced high.
On your forehead, did mama plant a kiss.
‘My darling, for the time now,
your father is the only man who loves you
and he does so as a father,
this I know from the inner parts of my heart said mama to you.
Your pride it is, keep it.
A crown it is, never let it fall.
‘A man shall come, and your father,
he will ask that he loves you and make a home with you.
Oh daughter, do wait for that man, said mama.
Don’t lose your worth, mama said.
Mama held you close to her breast and hugged you.
How to keep your pride, did mama teach you?
Your head you did nod,
like the old lizard, in the woods.
For what you did understand, we do
not know, neither does our minds conceive it.
Father warned and advised, they I
know like the palm of my hands, like me they are,
like the mark on my arm, do I know them.
Be wise and away, stay from their deceitful kind.
In the ways of your mother, take your steps.
Among ravenous wolfs, do not seek for words,
from your mother, and I,
seek your words on the way you should go.
Like your mama, a gold you are.
Keep your worth, if you are to be priced high.
Listen and learn from your mama.
The path you walk on, she took a long time ago.
The potholes, and the stumbling stone, she knows.
Be wise my child.
Their words, have you forsaken.
The path you were taught to walk on, you deserted.
How lost you are, on the path you chose to walk on.
In shame, you hide your face.
Oh! look what shame you have brought upon yourself.
Away, he took your pride.
Your crown threw him to the gutters.
You bend your head, out of the shame,
that is about you like a garment.
Your eyes, you turn away from the stares that follow you about like the bees.
Your belly protruded, you try to conceal with a shawl.
Your worth, you have lost.
whilst your mates, are seated in uniforms to be made leaders,
an unborn baby, you carry restlessly about, in your womb.
In careful steps, you walk
and your face, you hide behind a veil.
Had your ears been opened at the words mama tried to drop in them,
had you paid close attention to the words father uttered,
you will be walking with your head, held high.
Away you hide from other humans
like you, often at times you hear them say,
“a little girl she is, just a teenager indeed, she must be ashamed of herself”
your ears, you close against the whispers but of no good it is,
for the look on their faces, conveys the words you try not to hear.
Ah! she dropped out of school, such a shame.
Who is the father of the bastard?
they wonder as they laugh you to scorn.
A disgrace she is, they will spit out.
Bringing shame to the womb, that brought her forth.
In hurried steps, you walk away,
and soil the veil in tears.
The price of your foolishness, you pay in shame and suffering.
Look how they mock you.
A girl, once the apple of the people’s eye,
now a thorn in their flesh.
Your woman pride, he destroyed.
The world he promised you, we do not see.
Away, he took your dignity,
your purity and now you are left with nothing,
but a baby yet to be born.
A swollen belly of a teenage girl whose
dreams have not been lived up to, what pride is there in this?
Your reputation, you tarnished.
Ego bruised, and your pearls, you threw before swine.
What a waste!
Oh! a baby, soon to be born!
I know her not said he,
who planted that seed in you.
Away he ran from responsibility, now alone you suffer,
alone you bear this shame.
I never listened
If I had known, you say to yourself
a dozen times without count.
Had you listened to mother, had you listened to father.
A different path, you will be successfully treading on
and not in this pothole you find yourself.
This road you chose, you must travel in it.
Nothing but pity and shame do I feel for you, dear sister.
You brought tears to mama’s eyes
and a spear you pushed through the heart of father on this foolish act of yours.
Oh! what a shame you are!
About the Poem
The poem is all about a young teenage girl who left the path of decency and morals she was meant to walk on. You can see from the poem that she got pregnant by a young man who had deceived her. He denies ever knowing her, and she suffers pain and mockery. Her mother and father warned, but she wouldn’t listen.
The speaker in the poem is the sister to the teenage girl. She addresses her, as she is disappointed and ashamed of her. Well, what else, it’s a poem that depicts a picture of young girls who fall into the hands of the wrong men, that end up ruining their future ambition and making them single mothers at an early age.
