Response Poem 4: Jasmine

(Response to: "Not All, Only a Few Return")

Not All, Only a Few Return

The docile, decent good-girl heads out
plaited hair, pulled socks, pleated skirt
and rocks
in her pocket to mark her pathway back home
But not all, only a few are able to return.

Sending little bodies to scar soft skin
with shame  
there is an obsession with
"catching the culprit"

These schools are not schools
they are prisons.

Uniformed and armed with heavy load
Is your child going to school or is she going to war?

And in war
not all, only a few return.

Words like knives bruising soft skins
slaps like slaps bruising spirit

The docile, decent good-girl returns home
"How was your day?"
She says no words,

She walks in her room
Yanks her hair loose,
She removes her skirt, 
and throws it in the dustbin.

Her mother rescues the uniform
and puts it out for wash

"Tomorrow will be better dear."
How can it be better?

These schools are not schools
they are prisons. 

The next morning again,
The docile, decent good-girl heads out
plaited hair, pulled socks, pleated skirt
and rocks 
to remind her she is her own savior

Not all only a few are able to return,
as themselves
from school.