Caged Child

Mama why the fussy and the frenzy? I guess you feel your little girl has gone crazy? Ya, you’re right, I’m a little bit of that. And guess what? You caused it. 

Mama, you were a watchdog and I was your caged dog, suffocated by your unfathomable rules. Like an island, I lived my life, never allowed to mingle or play because to a perfectionist like you all the other kids were spoilt. They all heeded to your warnings and everyone avoided me like a plague. Mama, I wanted to soar high like an eagle but you curbed my wings and today I’m a vulture. Yes a vulture whose only consolation is your tears, so mama please cry me a river.

I craved to be a writer, for words were my only friends and poetry filled my empty soul, but you found my dreams to be too nonsensical so I ended up as a passionless science student, who couldn’t dare to fail or not being the best. 

To you I was a robot and not human, never allowed to make a mistake without earning a good beating or tagged a bag of shame. God knows I was pleased to gain admission into your chosen university to study your choice course Medicine. Lord! I hated that course but I was happy to leave home and you, but little did I know of just how cruel the world really is.

Mama, do you know that life devours the weak and the dumb get played? In school, I was the girl who was intelligent but naive, and clueless in other areas of life. Oh! How easy it was for that church brother to lure me into his bed with words from the Bible, the same Bible you hold in high regard. With words from the book of Solomon dumb me was convinced that it was right to love and behold the one who loves you. I thought everything was perfect, I felt loved for the first time but I was wrong.

My world crumbled when I got pregnant, and the holy brother bluntly denied me just as Peter did Jesus, and I finally realized all his kisses were like that of Judas.  I couldn’t dare tell you my plight, mama how could I? 

At that stage of my life Jessie the club girl came to my rescue, she became my messiah and I had my first abortion. Hahahaha! I remember her saying don’t hate the game, hate the players. Boys are broke, play your game in a bigger league. In accordance, I started going out with real men, I mean those with real cash and a wife at home. 

Yes mama, congratulations! Today, I am the baddest bitch in the game.

Factually, I do hate the path I’m trending on but it’s the only path I have come to know. Hilariously, what keeps the pain of my lost dream away is your pain and shame.

Mama, I’m pained for I will never be a great writer neither did I become a doctor. Maybe someday I could pick up the pieces of my shattered life and make something out of it.  However, you my dear perfectionist will never be able to mend your broken integrity and air of pride; for the world now knows that you failed as a mother and your daughter have gone really bad! So tell me mama was it worth it? How did caging me turn out? I really do hope you like the result.

We live in a society where a host of children are caged, and forced to live the dreams of their parents. They are not granted a voice of their own from a young age, so when they finally find an air of freedom, they get lost in the wind. Too many lost souls, therefore, it is important to change the narrative.

Never cage a child because when they finally learn to fly, the wind might consume them. Life is cruel and the dumb gets played, therefore, everyone deserves exposure, and a right to live their dreams.