FORGOTTEN
By Theresa Harvard Johnson

This poem was written in response to the thousands of orphanedd children who live in sewers beneath the streets of war torn third world countries. Their parents have been killed in wars and they build andd live lives in the sewage drains, eating from trash cans, begging, stealing, selling their bodies, and even swiping the belongings from those who die ... forgotten.....

underground
iron grates
in tunnels of sewage and refuse shelter them.

in a land darkened by
extreme poverty,
violent conflict brought
by tribal wars and

political upheavals
that have raged their cities for decades.

Yet,
the tiniest among them
suffer

as the sins of the fathers
visit generation after generation
as the scriptures foretold -
without knowing or hearing truths
that could open blinding eyes

and change the course of destiny.

Blood and sweat
cling to
young boys, girls
walking streets beneath
an Ethiopian or Asian
sunset,

hustling
passersby and
prostituting by night
pillaging through trash behind cafes
for bread, leftovers

they tell their stories,
and live each day in hopelessness

forgotten.