WE ARE JUST CHILDREN

The top of my head has been flattened by constantly carrying a tray of fruits that obviously weighs more than me street to street.

My ears have heard of afternoons with siesta, lunch, play and study but my eyes have never seen it.

My eyes have seen the sun, my regular customer who I hate so much until it begins to rain.

My eyes have witnessed heavy downpour that made we wish I was being cuddled in my mother's fat arms.

We would go house to house, street to street, we imagined ourselves to be warriors, strong men and women who had a great goal to achieve for humanity, at least we sold pepper and tomatoes that made life sweeter.

We are the children you will call "coconut head", how will book enter a head flattened by trays and roasted by the sun?

You will compare us to ten year old you, saying "when I was your age, I took first in class", making us wonder who then took the last position, maybe they are all dead.

You forget we are not you and cannot be you, we are kids trying to understand the rules of a world we just one day found ourselves in with unfavorable conditions.

You come up with big theories of "early to bed, early to rise", when all we want to do is just watch the stars as they beckon on us.

"Slow and steady wins the race", when we just want to run as fast as the music playing in our head.

"The patient dog eats the fattest bone", we don't want the bone, just give us the meat.

We don't understand you sometimes and you don't understand us most times.

We are just children!

I am just a child!

This world I do not understand yet and it seems you do not understand it too.

All we want to do is play by the waterside, roll in the mud and listen to your stories in the night.

Take the tray away for it is too heavy and makes us forget all that our teacher said.

Take the curses away for they leave marks on us no one can see making us become what you curse.

Take the cane away, you hit us like we are your problems, transferring the weight of your frustrations on the rod and that thing lands on our fragile backs.

We are just children!

I am just a child!

Hold our hands and set our gaze on the beautiful and positive things of life, we might not understand it yet, but we will someday.

For now, we are just children