HE WILL, HE IS , HE WAS - BREAK THE CHAIN TODAY

He will, he was, he is –let’s break the chain

His future is easy to prognosticate
The direction of his life if contorted towards doom
The frontispiece of his tomorrow is a silhouette
Literally he has been decapacitated
But with fortitude and formidable endurance 
He strives and works hard 
Hoping and believing things will get better
But his efforts are futile 
All matters exacerbate daily

Problems condense into permanent life situations
Disappointments, sorrow and regret are his daily bread
Just yesterday he found out that his girlfriend was pregnant
With another innocent soul to be exploited
He will know no school, hospital and a decent house 
Up until he too gets another 14 year old pregnant
The farm, construction site, illegal factories
Will be the only places he will ever know
His father suffered the same circumstances too
History has a strange way of repeating itself HUH!!!!
He WILL be a child slave

In torn shorts and a backless t shirt 
The obsequious 16 year old Nhamo
Genuflects for his captious, obese “Boss”
An exploiting, greedy and mean monster
Who briskly prods and harangues him back to work
An ordeal he has suffered for long
A daily chain he has endured for an agonising decade
Hopes for a better life are gradually putrefying
For all he knows is work eat and obey
He is a protégé by inheritance

Every day is a living hell for him 
When his boss’ sons are being driven to school
He walks a distant in a dusty and filthy road to the farm
His workplace, his school – that’s where all his life belongs
I am heartbroken and pain-stricken by the disparity of the scene
Tears flood my eyes on seeing such cruelty
His life is just an imponderable haversack of misery 
His so-called boss construes him as a tractor
He IS a child slave

His father convalesces lying in a reed bed
It all seems to be decrepitude
But he is in his late 30’s
He drinks a traditional bitter and malodorous cathartic
A remedy for the long ignored poisoning from agro chemicals
His back has been weakened by the long working hours
Which he endured since he was 6
The situation is brutally agonising
He suffered the same circumstances too
He WAS a child slave

The chain is going to go on
Genocide has already been committed
Yet I watch and ignore
Because my child is in school
Because my child has a decent living
Who then is going to stand for the oppressed?
Please take the last quatrain into consideration

Free the child slave
Break the long chain today
Say no to child slavery
For they deserve a life too


PR0vEb!K –V0kAL!$t

Takudzwa  Ziwenjere