familiar passage

tonight i heard my daughter

sob and say

i wish i were small again

life was wonderful

now everything is hard

one day things were easy

and now everything is scary

i heard sobs from her bedroom last night too

i overheard her confide to her mother

she said something that sounded too familiar

that echoed from the memory of my very childhood

she asked

"what is wrong with me"

i stood in the hallway

and cringed

the devil is a liar

and he uses public schools

to whisper his lies

into small ears

if a child can't fit the mold

understand the curriculum

keep up with it's pace

one gets lost

the school bus doesn't slow down for every child

the school bus doesn't always stop

i remember my little hell

being lost and categorized

somewhat hopeless

somewhere back there

when something broke inside me

how many times have i prayed

over my little ones

that they never have to go through

what i did

that little hell

that little daily hell

i laid hands on her tonight

prayed over her fears

chase away her tears

that seem to come each night these days

she goes to school to learn to read and write

and comes back beaten down

mother and i will do everything we can to help her

pray over her

study with her

get her tutored

stand up for her

but at this moment

as midnight nears

my heart breaks for her

my heart cries out to God for her

i don't want her to go

where i went

to be broken to a point

that it takes decades to be fixed

God be with my little ones