Small Children In Prison

(after watching  a documentary film

on a prison jail in the Philippines)

 

“I only steal from the rich

Not from the poor,

I steal because I am hungry”,

said the nine year old boy

as he was interviewed in jail.

 

Imprisoned for crimes

like stealing food to appease

hunger in the tummy,

Etsoy and others are caged like animals

sharing a pot of rice among

11 or 15 in-mates three times a day.

 

Mixed with adult criminals

charged with heinous crimes,

here they are in jail without pencil,

books, crayons and oil lamp,

Here they dread going to sleep,

scared  of  being raped.

 

And they look at the high fences

of concrete walls,

invincible by their bare hands

Here are fences that blind their eyes

from  seeing the meeting point

between earth and sky.

 

Here are walls that deny them

to gaze at the sea, the boats,

the jeepneys, the ships and passers-by,

the birds perching on trees

and the rice fields at  harvest time.

Yes, Etsoy and many more

Etsoys are  in this jail

imprisoned, imprisoned

behind these high impenetrable walls.

 

Yes, the small children like Etsoy

behind these concrete walls.

are only called by numbers

or nicknames for who dare

to know their precious names?

 

Behind these high concrete walls

they are forgotten

denied of their childhood and life. 

And this prison

is their own

university of life.