Last Day of School (Poetry)

No more teachers
to infuse the minds of young belles,
only vacant memories of
books, looks and girlish ways.

Lowered eyes
watch black boots and shadows
circle their boundaries
like dogs herding sheep.

Freedom fighters with guns
haunt these unwilling infidels,
their wombs pregnant with child-fear,
their innocence felled.

Conscience abandoned.
The world undone.
Submit—die—be defiled.
Boko Haram.

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Author’s Note: On the 14th of April 2014, the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok in Borno State, Nigeria had been closed for four weeks due to deteriorating security conditions. That day, 276 girls, aged 16 to 18 returned to take final exams in Physics the next morning. On that night, they were kidnapped by the Islamic group Boko Haram.

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Joseph K DeRosa Short Stories