There she sits on an erstwhile creaky bed
In a room that hasn’t been painted in ages
With walls full of cracks and holes
Quitely she sits and stares out the window
At the vast lands far beyond her reach
From afar one would find this behavior strange
For why should a child sit and stare at the land
A land void of beauty but full of rocks and sand
And yet nothing deters this little kid’s stare
Her expression, however, is an impartial one
With a closer look at this young child
One can conclude that she’s abstracted
Abstracted to this world and the things in it
The people, the birds, the trees and skies
The child is in a world of disappearance
From the room, she wonders a life outside
Existence other than the walls she sees every day
Life of parents, siblings and a circle of relatives
A lifestyle she can only long and hope for
One that could or might never come true
She thinks of about the whereabouts of her parents
Imagines what her mother would look like and her father also
Perhaps she has her mother’s eyes and her father’s height
Maybe they’re somewhere searching for her
Or maybe they’re better off without her
Lots of theories but no explanation to them
Perhaps one day it will all become clear to her
Maybe she’ll finally have a life beyond these walls
Perhaps one day she’ll see more than rocks and sand
And then the orphan child will be free of the orphanage
Author: Abrokwah Maxi Otuwaa
