Poetry –– Ruined Goods by Deborah Nathaniel Ayis

Our one room was the kitchen, bedroom, living room and the bushes were our toilet.

‘Come, I will get you money to feed your family’ she said

So we went, to a beautiful building the other side of town

She led me to a room, and asked me to stay comfortable

A few minutes rolled bye, I heard a knock

I opened the door and two men walked in.

I smiled and curtseyed, they strolled around me like hawks

I sat down silent, a well-trained, innocent girl

Awaiting my aunties’ entrance.

The fat one came to me and held my hand, playing with my hair with his other

I pulled back, avoiding his advances

‘We are going to play hard to get, are we?’ he taunted

His friend shut the door whilst fatso dragged me to my feet

He shackled my hands using his hand, shutting my mouth with his left hand

I could feel my clothes being ripped off by his accomplice.

Feel his putrid breath on my face while I struggled.

He forced his way in from behind

While fatso balled my clothes and stuffed a wad in my mouth

The pain was excruciating, even as I felt blood coursing down my legs

He sat on the floor, pulling me down on his equipment.

After a while it was fatso’s turn, and then the other and then fatso.

More men came for their share of the opened goods

Daggered multiple times till I fainted from pain and exhaustion

I awoke, believing it was a terrible nightmare

Not so, as I was now in a truck, with many girls about my age.

We were at the border, things were not right, we were ‘rescued’

I returned home

My father wouldn’t look or speak to me,

My mother wouldn’t touch or talk to me

I was thrown out after a day

No man would pay for my dowry

I was of no use to my family, I had but one place in society