The bell rang loud for the end of lunch and I ushered kids to the door.
I turned around and noticed a little girl picking a lunch bag off the floor.
She held it to her tiny mouth and whispered to it, then kissed,
Then threw the paper bag away and skipped to see what she'd missed.
I shut the door - confused - and led the kids down the hall,
Back to the third-grade classroom decorated with self-portraits on the wall.
The pictures were made to show the parents what their children saw
Whenever they looked in the mirror, and it filled me with such awe,
Because this little girl - who'd whispered to the bag -
Had no parents who'd shown up and see what talent their daughter had.
Instead, a teen boy, who didn't have to care,
Came to visit his sister and replace the adults not there.
I'd asked him once before why their parents never came,
He just shrugged and said they didn't feel the same.
"Our dad left when I was younger and Mom's always sleeping,
I know she does bad things at night and doesn't want my sister seeing
That really late, when we're asleep, she makes the pain go away,
But in the morning she feels much worse, so stays in bed all day."
I remembered this story and closed my eyes, hurting for this boy,
Who had to grow up so fast with no time to enjoy.
I looked at his sister at her desk, and she whispered to something in her fist,
A piece of brown stuck out, and my eyes started to mist.
I called her over, and looked in her blue eyes,
Innocent and gentle, and yet unhealthily wise,
She seemed uncomfortable, and she asked me what was the matter,
I laughed quietly and replied nothing, then my voice dropped below the chatter.
I asked her what she held so tight and whispered to now and again,
She smiled and held up a crinkled paper smelling like a cigarette stain.
I took the paper and unfolded it and again my eyes started to mist.
In big, black print her brother had wrote, "I love you, little sis".
Every day he wrote to her on a brown paper lunch bag,
Just like the other kids who did have moms and dads.
It seemed so difficult living with a parent that just left them there to cope,
Seeing him love her with everything gone really gave me hope.
*This is based off of a story I read at GivesMeHope.com
