Business Will Never Kill The Child

Beating a child
is not the abuse,
but the abuse
is the mind
used in beating
the child.

Sending a child to hawk
is not the abuse,
but the abuse
is in the mind
used in sending
the child
to hawk.

If beating a child
and sending him to hawk
is abusing the child,
is sending a child to school,
at the early age,
perhaps against his wish,
not an abuse?

Most things
man has learnt
on the glebe
started before eighteen,
not when he is eighteen.

Heartbeat!

What is the abuse is:
not disciplining the child
when he wrongs,
not allowing him learn anything
because he is 'underage'
and allowing him live his 'life',
not the universal life?

Work will never kill a child,
but laziness will.
And that is the heartbeat!



This is a speech delivered by Odimegwu Onwumere, a Poet/Author and Media Consultant, the Founder of Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on 26th May, 2010, in marking of the year's Children's Day ( May 27 every year). Contact: +2348032552855. Email: [email protected]