The Creek Girl – By Benin Richard

She lacks fear for the dark, Alas she was born and raised in it,

She takes her first water from the river, defecates and bath in it the same river that gives her healing.

Her region over-exploited, devastated and near conquered……thus, she is a product of a bleeding environment……

What sort of a child comes out of a near conquered environment? Oh! she’s already near conquered even before conception….

A child is a product of its environment; indeed, she is a testament of this fact.

She only knows the rain that imprints carbon into her DNA

Her mother tongue is rooted deep in her genes, but she learns and masters a foreign language in her own way…….

She takes classes with crustaceans and reptiles because a portion of her classroom wall has fallen…….

Her teacher seldom comes to teach because the tides could not permit access….

In the quest to feed, her father paddles deep into the creeks for days….

Her brother is an endangered species…. he is now the enemy because he chose to fight injustice

She was made to lead, But the only way she could lead a better life is to venture to the other side of the river,

Hence, she looks out for that boat to help fulfil her dreams by taking her out of that ancestral home where her only cardinal sin is being born into a place where God’s given natural resources has become a curse…….

She’s a freeborn like every other child anywhere in the world who doesn’t stand a chance, socially, educationally, emotionally and mentally, with the girl from the other side.

She grows up fighting against all odds and behold, the odds sure make the difference……

Could she be a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, or a poet, a lawmaker, a banker, a professor, an engineer, a General in the army….?

No! Oh no! she can’t! After being ravaged by men who ought to be the light to guide through her path. I doubt that…….

Yes, yes, and yes, she can! Where there is a will, there is always a way!

But is that enough to give hope?