A.L.I...

The night was done and my rest over
I jerked to reality and from my dream shuddered
"Thank God it was a dream" I gently muttered
As I slowly got up and got free of my bed and its tempting covers

The sun was already up and it was barely eight
I decided to feel the day and so peeped outside my towering gate
In the distance I saw a child of about seven or eight
Carrying a load about four times his own weight

I could tell a whole lot from just that single gaze
He seemed lost as one fiddling in a maze
Hair balding not from aging but definitely heat and haze
And it was glaring that he worked hard and wasn't a laze

He was pale, stout and ill nurtured
He neither smiled nor frowned as though so designed by nature
He was evidently young but his mouth revealed heavily deformed denture
All resulting from bad diets and Poverty's torture

I shrugged and sighed at the pathetic sight
Knowing deep within that it wasn't right
But feeling helpless, lacking power and might
To help him and other innocent children facing similar plight

As I turned to leave, a loud scream I heard
A muscular man had appeared with fist raised above his head
Filled with fright; he frantically begged his master to be spared
But all I heard was a clear call from this way of life to be freed

His scream and plea were awfully strange
Sounding through the air like a dog trapped in a cage
"Mummy" or "Daddy" were common cry calls for kid his age
But his scream was one of searing pain and true rage

Moments later I was lost in my own thoughts
My once brights morning suddenly blackened out
His face was clearly etched on the tablets of my heart
And his screams my clear conscience painfully haunts

I barely knew him but his bruises were now mine to mend
He never begged to be born but misery was now his lot to tend
All he wanted was to live and not be burdened
But all he got was A Life Imprisoned (A.L.I)

***SAY A PRAYER FOR THE INNOCENT CHILDREN FORCED INTO CHILD LABOUR... GOD HELP US ALL!!!***

...IGIT!!!