Human- The Name of Her Being

Published on by Tosha Michelle

image

Imagine the soulless trafficker
holding a young girl’s life in his hands.

Imagine the young girl in front of him,
eyes glazed from the heroin
he’s forced her to inject.

The unturned years stolen.

Her body’s lexicon
the clamor of sharks to blood,
the swarm of hornets.

Raped. Beaten. Used up.
Innocent debased.

He’s taken it all.
Leaving burnt trunk and a once
flourishing root decimated.

Imagine sprayed bullets,
sparkling on the
grimy warehouse floor.

Imagine the now bulging
eyes of the child, the girl
who doesn’t stop being dead.

The tragic wreckage of greed
splayed on the ground.

Let her gone dreams haunt you.
Don’t allow her to become
an apathetic byte on the news,
incapable of ruining your family’s dinner.

For a moment at least,
be conscious, not comfortable.

Allow her to bare her teeth
and demand that you see her loss.

This child, born into a world
she couldn’t overcome.

Let her eyes be a memory,
that the universe
isn’t always civilized
or wash and wear

Let her blood spill on everything,
the table cloth, the fine china,
the prettily pressed clothes.

See her. Feel her pain.
Let her shadow be your shadow.
If only for a moment, look back.

Hear her whispering her name.
Let her name be your name.
Human. The name of her being.
The name of your being.

-Tosha Michelle

109 thoughts on “Human- The Name of Her Being”

  4. There is a beast in men’s hearts and they wouldn’t change or stop if realization slapped them in the face for they see their doings everyday and still sleep like a baby every night…

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  15. Reblogged this on Flaggfan and commented:
    This is near and dear to my heart. Absolutely incredible and gut wrenching, Tosha. There’s something beautiful in the wreckage and brokenness. I could not BE more proud of you. Thank you very, very much for speaking out about this!

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  16. This was quite bloodcurdling but such a powerful and mandatory write for people to stop being blasé. Child trafficking is a huge problem and its eradication is something which is close to my heart, especially since I interacted with a lady called Bina from ipartner.org who founded the initiative every8minutes.org and the movie on child trafficking called every 8 minutes. I almost worked for iPartner but unfortunately life decided otherwise. These organisations need a lot of funding and aside from child trafficking for sexual abuse, there is also the problem of forced child labour which is also a derivative of child trafficking. You have organisations like small hands which work against that. So much to do and so little time and funds. Meanwhile billions, say even trillions are spent on senseless wars.

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  18. There are some dreadful people in the world thats for sure – mostly its poverty that drives it, but there are some sick people at all levels unfortunately. I watched this thing called Stacey Dooley investigates recently, about girls trafficked around the Philippines islands, they send them home, then the parents put them back on the next boat, she interviewed people in jail and they were totally without remorse, they just couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of having or wanting a “nice life” – its all so tragic

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  19. I don’t know what else to say about this and you. You know how much I admire you and your poetry..and the greatest thing anyone can do is speak for those who have no voice and to play the cards fate has given you not for yourself, but for others.
    #poeticheroine

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    1. Thanks, Eric. Every now and again I like to step away from the introspective stuff and do a social commentary piece. This is a cause that is very dear to my heart. I could go on and on about it, but in your case I would be preaching to the choir. I appreciate you.

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  20. Tosha, when I read the words on the image, I thought they were referring to child abuse because the signs are so similar. It is the mindset of people who would denigrate the existence of others in that way. Thought provoking words, and they should encourage us to offer care and protection to the people who need us.

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      3. Or talking! Haha
        No really, Fank you. A great and thoughtful piece.
        Too sad that kids have to go through all that for poets to highlight.

        Liked by 1 person

  25. I’m moved by the fact that so many people took the time to comment on this post. Human trafficking is one of the greatest evils of modern society, and it is running rampant. But I’m happy to see that so many of your readers are just as disgusted with it as I am.

    Thank you for helping to make more people aware of this topic.

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  27. This is a profound write that speaks to a real issue in society. As terrifying as those traffickers are, just as terrifying are the numbers of people looking to abuse these. Your words are empathetic and filled with a cry that I hope the world will heed.

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  28. I think this is the best I’ve read of yours. It’s haunting, powerful, compelling, frightening, and most importantly the truth. Writing like this makes a mark, an impact, a difference. Well done. Well written. And my hat is off to you for this piece of purpose.

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  29. Reblogged this on JacobEmet and commented:
    Great work is demanded to be shared. I applaud the boldness and compelling of this author. To those who have a voice, it is required that you speak for the innocent.

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  30. Then there are the girls who live but die inside. They too are human even though it may take some time for the survivors to re-discover their humanity. Many never will and never have a hope to so if we all ignore them, treat them as invisible, or treat them as the kind of women ‘good’ women have nothing to do with. These girls aren’t that hard to find. They’re in the strip clubs, fancy hotels, and at the bars where lawyers and politicians like to hang out. If there weren’t so many willing to pay to consume them, the market would die out.

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    1. So very true. Mind you, many ladies-who-lunch have perfected that deal in their own way. A woman who ‘sells her body’ and a man who ‘buys’ it/profits from it both come from the same background of abuse, but this time round the buyer has the power to denigrate and the seller slips further into a spiral of (self-)hatred and (self-)abuse.

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      1. Most girls aren’t women when they’re first exploited. Few girls dream of being prostitutes. A man abused as a child, I feel for and want him to get the healing he needs, but when he decides to abuse girls and young women, exploit them, he’s crossed a line there is no excuse for. The same goes for a sexually abused, exploited girl/woman who as an adult becomes a Madame. There is never an excuse to abuse, it is always a choice. The buyer is the biggest abuser of all and often, painted as a victim. They should arrest them and put their faces on billboards. Pimps should hate the monsters they’ve become and then seek to change. Sorry if I sound rough about some of this but it’s a rough subject. There is no healing without truth.

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      2. I completely agree. But we have to start to end child abuse in the family where it happens most often (father and/or other male members perpetrate the abuse, mother is complicit/facilitates it). And this, dear, is the most difficult of all. For behind every man who abuses a child stands a mother who has led her child to the slaughter and therefore it will not get the help and protection it needs. I speak from personal experience.

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      3. I also, speak from personal experience and there will be no end to child abuse if abusers don’t face what they are and work toward their healing. All of us are a combination of nature, nurture, and personal choice. Choice is the only power any of us have over the other two. Mothers are sometimes the active abusers and the father the enabler, or they abuse together, or they choose one child to abuse and teach siblings to abuse that child too. A victimized child has no choice but when they become adults they do. Choosing to face the truth is the only way out. There’s lots of talk about ending child abuse as a solution to crime but the more we talk, the more children are abused. It’s epidemic but also, mostly invisible. We’re much more likely to hear stories of animal abuse while stories about abused children are ignored yet, they system is overwhelmed with cases. As a result, only children suffering the most severe forms of abuse are helped, the others ignored, and too many of them die as a result. Truth be known, our society values children less and less as time passes. Their rights aren’t protected. So we should wait until they become monsters and then feel sorry for them? There are many people from abusive childhoods who don’t choose to abuse others but instead, choose to work for healing and a new understanding of how to relate to others.

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  32. Heck ya! Stellar job Tosha. My husband is a filmmaker and he co-wrote and directed a movie a few years ago about Human sex trafficking. I also know of a girl in the north-east of Brazil that went up to a friend of mine and offered herself to him for a measly piece of bread. Worse off is that it’s her father that encourages her to do so. That way their family would have something to eat. The girl was only 10. Super sad. And whoever says there’s no such thing as evil is obviously blind. Can’t look at the world and see the all of the injustice and dark stuff happening to and from humans and say that there is no such thing as evil.
    On a lighter note, I hope you’re doing well. Have a great rest of the week.
    🙂 ❤

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  34. Reblogged this on sherriemiranda1 and commented:
    A great cause wrapped inside a beautiful poem. Plus a video! What more could you ask for? Thank you, Tosha! 😉 ❤
    Peace, love & a chance at a real life for all,
    Sherrie
    Sherrie Miranda's historically based, coming of age, Adventure novel “Secrets & Lies in El Salvador” is about an American girl in war-torn El Salvador:
    http://tinyurl.com/klxbt4y
    Her husband made a video for her novel. He wrote the song too. You can find it on YouTube. Or on some of my other posts. 😉 ❤

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  35. I liked this very much, no whimsical hypocrisy about how we should care and see but instead showing a way of paying respect by making space inside our awareness and hearts and allow her suffering to be heard and seen by our mind’s eye.
    Very powerful. The same heart and mind-opening should apply to all children/women/men who are abused and sexually exploited. Once we do this, we will be able to take positive action.
    Dagmar

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  36. Thanks for using your beautiful writing to bring focus to this horror. I have a friend, working on this issue for a non-profit, who just went to the state capital to discuss it. You are truly doing a service with your art. Art as activism!

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  40. Tosha, I truly loved your post. Human trafficking seems to be something America is in denial about. Look how long it took to focus on the raping of women on college campuses and in the military.(I feel I need to say that second one again: In the MILITARY!) Sometimes I am embarrassed to be a man. Did you see Lady Gaga’s performance of “Til It Happens to You” last night on the Academy Awards? I started crying as soon as I realized what the song was about. She co-wrote the song with Diane Warren for the 2015 documentary film The Hunting Ground, which deals with campus rape in the United States. I really enjoy reading your posts. I hope you’ll take some time to stop by my blog at http://theaccidentalpoet.net.

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  41. Sometimes we get upset with the smallest thing, when others never stop dying…
    Thank you for making us remember to never stop living ❤

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  42. Funny, I received the email from your passage on my blog, on my last first-generation iPad before receiving it on my Lenovo laptop.
    Thank you. Good night.

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