Child labour

I tremble at the distant sea as if it will

Sweep in and take me away anytime,

I am still to get used to this wilderness,

Blue and vast and seething with waves

That wants to come in and steal the land,

I keep telling myself there is enough sand

Here to stop the water from reaching me,

Looking at the other children playing 

I ask, I ask my tiny little feet to shed

This fear of a raging, restless, fierceness ---

I am not here to play or laugh or lounge

Like my peers who don't need to work

I am here to sell this fluffy pink candy

To these toddlers and their parents who

Want to go back in time again for a while,

You tell me child labour is banned here

I want to tell you childhood itself has been.