Prayer of an Invisible Child | Teen Ink

Prayer of an Invisible Child

July 12, 2010
By JJjuice SILVER, Huntington Beach, California
JJjuice SILVER, Huntington Beach, California
6 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
Keep your face in the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.


In Gulu, I was abducted in the night.
They took me while I cocooned in sleep,
My arms around my brother,
My breath on his back

Utusamehe makosa yetu,
kama sisi nasi tuwasamehevyo wadeni wetu*

I remember when we could climb the mango trees,
Where the Umbelasha flows.
The mango juice squirting between our teeth,
Flesh sweet and pulpy, stickying our hands.

But now the mango trees are ash,
And Umbelasha is silent in the dry cracked desert.

Na usitutie majaribuni,
lakini utuokoe na yule mwovu.**

I cannot cry, for my heart is a desert
Your eyes haunt me.
I am an old man now,
But my heart is still at war.
It stopped on the day
I killed you.
On the day, by my own hand,
I became an orphan.


The author's comments:
Translations for this poem:
*And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
**And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

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