Examination

From her window

she watches the child,

sitting alongside the street

playing with stones

that the mother cut

to fulfil the builder's dreams.

One, two, three it goes

hitting the little one,

hard on its toe.

It lets out a loud wail,

but mother's too busy;

the builder might call her insane.

Alas, she thinks,

this world has failed.

A mother

needs permission,

to heed to her child's pain.

While all she can do

is sit and stare,

at answers to questions

that her father cares

of people, places,

births, deaths,

of mineral deposits

and state capitals

to pass an exam

she would rather fail.

Only to be able to

cross the street

and hold the child

in her care.

Elsa Mathews -

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