Different yet the same

Individual and unique

Voices shared by many

Empower and embrace

Respect for one another

Sharing our humanity

Inspiring never tiring

Together we will

Yield peace in society

 

Amanda Knowles MBE

Children in Need

Would that be all our children or just those that deserve and who decides?

I wonder….

Does the child who refuses to go to school and face the bullies deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child born addicted to heroin deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who self-harms deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who witnesses domestic violence at home every day deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who is beaten and chastised at home deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who is repeatedly raped by adults deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who is sexually exploited by a carer deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the hungry child who gets caught shoplifting deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who robs to support a drug habit deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who runs drugs for the drug dealers deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who killed the family pet deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who lit the fatal fire deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who abducted, tortured and killed deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the child who killed their abuser deserve help?

I wonder….

Does the 8year old child who feels safer in the gang, armed with knives and guns, dealing drugs to belong, waiting for promotion to a higher order deserve help? 

These are all our children…… Forgive me if I wonder….

 

Amanda Knowles MBE

16^th November 2018

To The Boy

To the boy whose cheeks burnt with tears…

Sissy

Nancy Boy

Big Girls Blouse

He who’s not allowed to indulge in emotions

No crying

Quiet

Don’t make a sound; that’s it swallow it down.

They’ll tell you you’ll turn out just like him, if only you knew who ‘He’ was.

The minds imprint taken only from photographs, no smell, touch or memory; no comment to pass…only fears to dwell on.

You took it as given that’s who you are.

No good…Simply rotten to the core, nothing of any significance that’s you a bi-product, mistake, a bastard…a devil child; that’s who!!

The anger it festered, it bubbled inside; it grew with you to the size of the door. No longer able to contain the volcano of vitriol, hate and I’m sure…the re-living of every single detail of the terrible things you endured.

 

BOYS DON’T CRY

It will ring in your ears like a bell.

So you push it away and swallow back the intensity of the swell.

The tidal wave will take you over, if you drop that guard, now the pain turns to anger how long can you keep it behind that façade?

Broad shoulders to carry the weight of the world…stiff upper lip, no sharing of thoughts or feelings, a void where a heart should live; or so you think!

You’re allowed to be open and honest.

You don’t need permission of course.

You CAN express your emotions take down the brick wall course by course.

Vulnerability’s not reserved just for females, and that is an actual truth.

No need to carry a globe on your back…no-one needs definitive proof of your strength as a man.

Because ultimately, all of those messages they fed you, when they told you that you can’t do this because you’re a boy; But You Can!!

 

By Saira-Jayne Jones