Stolen

six young girls…
breakfast cereal smiles
malleable playdough
trusting in a woman
where did you go?

ring a ring a rosies

a pocket full of posies

six young girls…
lured by a woman
many years ago
drugged and raped
where did you go?

atishoo, atishoo,
all fall down

six young girls…
snatched by a woman
many years ago
did her lover kill you?
we’ll never know.

(All rights reserved.)

This poem is dedicated to the following girls who were abducted in South Africa during the late 1980s.  They have never been found.

Tracy-Lee Scott-Crossley, Fiona Harvey, Joan Horn, Rosa Piel, Odette Boucher, Yolanda Wessels

This has been substantially reworked thanks to the input of my poetry friends (from Facial Expression Poetry Circle) - Luke Rapture Elk, Maggie Garavaglia, Julie Watkins and Beth Winter who helped me improve on my original poem... Thanks guys.  I think it is so much better now.