Invisible Children

Invisible children fall

through the cracks of the system

like Alice in the rabbit hole.

But these children won’t find

an eat-me cake or a drink-me bottle.

They won’t wake up on the lap

of a loving sister.

They’ll open their eyes on the hand

of a monster called Negligence

who’ll poke them with its sharp teeth

and bait them with its heartless laughter,

like a wild thing in a wild rumpus.

But the children won’t awake

to the smell of a warm supper,

nor will they find a purple crayon

to draw an escape door or a window.

Instead they’ll make a mirror

of a murky puddle on the city street

which won’t tell them they’re beautiful

but it’ll show their scars, as invisible to others

as these children are.