Child Rape In School Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

I went to school to read and to write,
I went to school to learn and remember
I knew of words and sentences
along with my prayers and our national anthem.
I knew of colours, birds and trees,
I knew to add and subtract sums of two digits,
I knew the names of my friends and teachers,
as together we sang aloud the nursery rhymes;
I wanted to be wise, when I grew up,
I wanted to study, play and run;
but suddenly someone came
and dirtied my uniform and me;
the Medical report read -Child rape!
I never understood what it meant.
But my father and mother told everyone
they never expected this to happen to me.
They asked the police if they had sent me to school
or reached me to a brothel.
How could anyone spoil my future
how could my school ignore my safety
how could anyone exploit my innocence
how could he forget that I was just a little child?
How could he play the rape-game with me
when I had not even grown into a woman?
How could my teachers allow such a big blunder?
Can they ever erase this dirty chapter?
What is protection and justice worth to me now
when I am labeled as a raped child?
Where can my parents hide me ever
as unpleasant remarks keep piercing our ears?
How can anyone return my purity to me?
And, as I grow from six to sixty
I will know of true shame,
I will know of gloom
as bitter truth will stand before me
through the years of my life;
that when I will look into the mirror
will I ever stop to tell myself
I was raped when I was just a child
and my heart will cry deeply from within.