Chapter Seven: Environmental Awareness

Chapter Seven
Environmental Awareness
Posted August 10, 2012

7943

(The Story of a young African girl and the daily six mile trek she makes to retrieve water for her parents and younger siblings.)

The journey seemed longer today than yesterday.  
7941… 7942… 7943. Nope.  Still the same;
7943.  The exact number of steps my feet had taken me,
Every day for the past three years.
My tired back bends to fill my can to the very top,
Before placing in steadily upon my head.
In all my years I have gotten very good at this,
And a sense of pride revealed itself within the upturned corners of my mouth.
I turned as sudden and graceful as a ballerina,
Then, the return trip begins;  
1, 2, 3 4…

Halfway home, night fell upon the withered path my shoeless feet had left.
Scared and alone with nothing to keep me company but,
The African sky sprinkled with stars.
The glowing eyes and growling stomachs of the unknown longed for me.
Once in the impending distance, they now appeared hauntingly closer.     
3497… 3498…3499! 3499!  3499!  I could not move. 
I found myself frozen as they surrounded me.
Then, as I fell to the ground, the water meant for my family was lost,
Watering the greedy dirt instead.
My name was Afua as I was born on a Friday.
I died on a Friday, too.   
I was eleven. 

K.J. Brubaker
Keiser University
Professor Fischetti