The Window Of My Eyes
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a mother
who is burying her only son
He died under a gold mine just like his father
They were both trying to put food on the table and cover their nudity
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a woman
who doesn’t know what global warning or climate change is
She is confused about why it’s not raining for her garden and crop to grow
She didn’t contribute in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
She is just trying to send her children to school
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of worried parents
who are wondering how their children will make a living and have a decent life
in a country where corruption and neo colonization rule
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a teenage girl
who spends her week ends and school breaks selling oranges and apples at the bus station
from dusk to dawn
More than once a day she almost got raped
This is the only way for her to pay for tuition and escape early arranged marriage
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a frustrated young entrepreneur
who despite her ambition and capacity can’t do anything to help her people
just because corrupted leaders have broken her wings
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of mother
who locks her children inside the house
She is trying to hide them from Boko Haram
She doesn’t want her daughters to become sexual slaves
and her sons to be killed as child soldiers
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of Garibu*
who is hoping and praying that the next door he is going to knock at will
feed and clothe him
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a young man
who left his country for Tounka*
He is dying in the Sahara Desert
Somewhere between Tombouctou and Mauritania
Other young men who left for Tounka like him
Drowned in the Mediterranean Ocean trying to sneak into Spain
They were all trying to escape the corrupted system
The system that built a wall impossible to climb
between them and a decent life
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a woman
who just caught a bullet
while trying to get her three-year-old out of a war zone
Her husband died the same way a couple of days ago
while covering her back
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of a six-year-old girl
who have been raped by two foreign soldiers who are “fighting” terrorism in her country
I wonder who the real terrorists are
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of an International student in the US
who doesn’t know how to feel when she compares the opportunities she has
With the struggles of her peers and family back home
When you look into my eyes
You are looking into the eyes of an unofficial ambassador of the third world.
*Non-English words
Tounka: When someone leaves their hometown or country to go somewhere else to build a better
life without much financial resources and/or a specific plan.
Garibou: Little boys who have been abandon on the street because their parents can’t take care of
them; related to some ancient tradition
