“Wherever you go,
please don’t forget to take care of your sisters
and brothers.
Remember that you have a suffering family that needs your help.”
My parents woke me up early Sunday morning
to pray for me and bid me farewell
with pieces of advice
during our family devotion.
I’d leave later that day to live with my new family.
At my new home somewhere in central Monrovia, I slaved.
Days washed into weeks,
weeks into months,
months into years.
I couldn’t go back as a failure to a suffering home that sent me to suffer.
I ran away from my master/husband.
I ran until I forgot I had legs.

*****

[Courtesy of the author]

Link to the Italian translation