An Extract from VOICE OF THE STREET CHILD (To all parents who have ruined their children's future with divorce. Part of the works of Isaac Essoun)

I can remember how wicked
Life was to my mother after the divorce
A single parent catering for
Legion children – how pathetic!

Our education, our feeding, our clothing
Our shelter – she was really suffering!
O poor mother! her strength faded out
She could no longer bear it:
So she gave up!

Today I am the victim
Wandering up and down
Utterly hopeless on the street!
After hungrily begging and I’m never given
I then angrily rush out – out for stealing!
Cocaine and marijuana and alcohol
Are my food!
I break into people’s buildings
My sleeping place is the prisons!
Useless now is my life
I now a social misfit am!
I have no hope: totally feckless!
Where is my dream?
It’s shamefully shattered!

ISAAC ESSOUN