March 16, 2010

Oh thin orphan child,

Your arm circumference measures 13 cm.
Anything less than 13. 5 signifies malnourishment.
Your hair is thin and yellow with no shine.
Your mouth has ulcerations for lack of Vitamin B.
Your eyes are dry with Vitamin A deficiency.
Will you go blind next year?
But you do not understand perhaps, these emergent signals.
Indeed, you are only 5 years old.
Approximately.
Because you have no guardian to count your age.
Nor one to feed you.
Nor one to hold you.
To brush your teeth, clean your body or delouse your hair.
Oh babe, do you see the injustice of your reality?
You know nothing besides this prison.
Under a roof you are fed rice and potatoes.
Maybe.
And put to sleep with 68 others.
During the day, you "learn."
Among the chaos of this "school."
For lunch, you compete with 190 other children for food.
Are you still hungry?
Your caretakers will ingest pleasureably the remaining nutrients.
If their arms were thin as yours I would snap them now.

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