They Mattered

By Ayikpo Timothy

Her eyes twinkled like stars

Mischievous stars

And her little feet crept quietly down the trail

As young as they were, they already bore scars

She was tiny, but nothing about her was frail

Sometimes she walked and acted like a dainty princess, her kinks bouncing on her head as she went

Sometimes she picked up speed and ran, ran with as much energy as it would have taken her to vent

If she could vent

There were wild thoughts swirling around in her head

Wild, angry thoughts begging to be let out

But she just kept going instead

Hoping she’d find a place she could screeeaam, and shout

The men had come,

Again

Taken everything, washed the village clean like the aftermath of a storm

Left the only hill she’d come to know as home plain

This time her naughtiness had done some good

Here she was, still alive

But running, running from the place her home once stood

The shouts of those men still ringing in her ears like the sound of bees being chased from their hive

She’d heard her father say one time

That it wasn’t about the cows or the land

It wasn’t even about the schoolgirls, this dirty crime

There was something more profound in the ground than plain sand

Just…everybody was complacent

And she had been too, a little girl, what did she know

But she didn’t want to stay anymore, didn’t care where she went

She didn’t find it fun anymore, sitting back, watching hate grow

From the people who had always wanted to be the enemy

And they were succeeding

Just that, they were doing it rough

She mattered too

The people she loved mattered.