Too Young Too Loud To Different – Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen

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This is a Prayer by Anne Enith Cooper repeats the line:

“This is a Prayer for the dispossessed, for the fallen and we’ve all fallen sometimes, for the children...” listing situations of struggle and signs of hope.

My Headstone Read ‘Beloved Daughter’ by Fikayo Balogun talks of sexual violence and ends:

“The world asked me to speak, but words cannot

describe the injustice that has been dealt to my soul.

Words would buy you justice, they said.

I told them, what has been taken from me is my life

with my soul ripped from its root. I have disappeared

into oblivion, words cannot bring me back.”

Route by Sundra Lawrence

The news charcoals my fingers.

Syria is closed, I tell my daughter,

of course, she wants to know why:

The country is hurting itself -

people want to find safety.

She sketches a map on paper

from her toy globe

then colours in the countries,

she draws a route from Damascus to London:

It’s so they can find us.

If they wear good shoes

can the Syrians walk through Turkey

and catch a boat to Greece?

I say it’s a good plan

but crossing the water is costly.

Are there beds? Will their mummies tuck them in?

Families hold each other for the journey, I say,

I pull the cover up to her chin.

Her breath is all that remains of the day;

guiding the cheap rafts through rough seas.