The Child Laborer Poem by Barnali Saha

The Child Laborer

by

Barnali Saha


He wakes up in one early morn

And wipes his dry eyes of fatigue

The stinky bin stands beside him

Scrapes of paper and unadulterated dreams mingle

A mystic odor lulls a honeyed charm

He looks at the vast sky above

Thousand lights dancing in delight

And thinks of the day he had passed

One grimy hand, one heart full of rust

His hungry stomach aches in pain

Poverty runs down his deep gray vein

The stale bread in one street corner he ate

While uncouth smiles mocked at his fate

He is cold in his thread bare shirt

His limbs curl up in the in the dust and dirt

The heavy load of bricks awaits his arrival

One prized reward of a biscuit looks for him

The world rotates eternally in glee

Never pauses a second to see

That unfortunate kid on that one corner laying

His thirst for unquenchable love crying

Yet he is happy in his hapless sphere

He adorns his dusty smile in that moment of fear

Undaunted courage rises in his bosom

As new aspirations in his little heart blossom

Flocculent phantasms of that bright new morrow

When there will be no bricks and no cumbersome sorrow

The furrows of his baby face glisten with perspiration

The heavy load often bends his body but he is brave

For he knows one life lies ahead


A thousand miles to walk before he rests in his grave