The Rag-Pickers
By Manzoorul Haque for New Age Islam
Note: A Poem of 13 year old Tunisian Arab girl Montaha Dridi, has been recast by Manzoorul Haque for New Age Islam, hopefully without diluting the essence.
Our clothes are tattered,
We are weather-battered,
It’s cold out there,
We, kids of nowhere,
No mom, no dad to care,
Finding shelter, here and there,
No windows, no door
Just the rocky floor,
No place to live,
Nothing in hand to give,
We have no money,
No one calls us honey,
Blue sky is our canopy,
‘Homeless’ is our identity,
They know not our sadness,
How much this is endless,
In winter we suffer most,
To stay alive we put effort,
We go to the market everyday
To pick clothes from garbage bay
Hoping that our picks fit us,
We stumble upon something to focus,
Sometimes it’s a broken toy
Sometimes, left-over foods of a rich boy,
We imagine the way rich are living,
We wish, like them, we were also having,
A nice life every day,
Without the sufferings that come our way,
Spring is the season of happiness,
Because the cold is less!
And we enjoy the flowers’ smell,
We even hear, what to each other the flowers tell,
I know it sounds funny,
But nature is our friend,
And we believe,
It will last till our end!
Summer is very hot,
It’s okay, you thought?
Sun is right on our heads
But we stay together,
Me and my brother,
To give each other,
A cover,
As you know,
We have no father, nor mother!
But something happened this week,
We couldn’t find anything to eat,
We went to the market, to the garbage,
Everywhere,
We could find nothing to share,
Then I found a delicious sandwich next to a bone,
I didn’t tell my brother, I ate it alone!
I don’t know why I did it,
I don’t know what happened to me,
But my brother died of hunger that night,
His left hand held a letter tight,
The letter said, “I wanted to die,
I didn’t have courage to say goodbye,
I knew about the sandwich you found,
A kid gave it to me which I had left near the bone,
Because you are the one who can live alone,
And I knew that you would be able to do it,
Because you wanted to be happy,
You cannot bear sadness like me,
How I wish you find a family,
No, with you, I am not mad or angry,
I just wanted to let you be!
I have one last wish to make,
If it does not your heart break,
Bury my body with a dish,
On which, place the skeleton of a small fish,
So no one should know of my death with hunger,
Of my brother failing to share his burger,
Don’t tell this secret to any other,
Because I love you my brother!”
I could take it no more,
Life for me was a gore,
I cried and hated myself,
I felt like an elf;
I deserve to die,
Hey dear life, goodbye,
I went to a restaurant, and stole a knife,
I stabbed myself many times - almost five,
My blood spilt on the floor,
No one knew what for,
I kept the secret, that I had deserved to die,
On my death therefore no one shall cry,
I regret every bite of that sandwich,
Did I not kill my brother for it?
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/the-rag-pickers/d/105547
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, Tunisian Girl, Tunisia, Terror In Tunisia, Tunisian Arab girl Montaha Dridi, Spiritual Meditation