A Girl of Six

By Dana M. E. Alhaddad

A girl of six,
Eager to learn,
Goes to school:
Her soul yearns
Infinite knowledge,
To score.
Teacher, mates,
All seem jolly.
Her place she takes
With a spirit high:
To start the lesson
She is prepared.
The teacher asks
Each to speak
Their names, their wishes:
Their hopes unfulfilled.
They respond
With ease: all is well.
But her (O misery!)
The words prepared for
The wishes thought of,
Only to say
What lay on her mind:
To get the breath,
The nerve to find.
The mind made up
To open her mouth,
To utter a sound.
And what merely came
To convey her name?
An endless 'd'.
No breath would come.
She heard their laughs,
Her mates' scorns,
Wondering why.
Dear child, doomed
To exile, fallen,
Destined to be
Forever a joke,
Forever a fool
In a world forlorn