Golden Child, poetry written by SmithaV at Spillwords.com
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Golden Child

SmithaV·
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Golden Child

written by: SmithaV

@SmithaVishwana4

 

‘O golden child the world will kill and eat.’
Dark as it may seem, do not let it defeat
The purpose you’re there to meet
The scars on your back and the blisters on your feet
A small price we must pay for an ending so sweet

O golden child it’s a hungry world out there
It knows only to take but do not let it tear
Or taint your simple soul. Beware!
The bright lights and the smiling faces are a snare
The cross you carry is hard to bear

O golden child the world will snatch and forget
It’s a mercenary; do not let-
Your heart so pure, drown in regret
The hurt in your eyes and the brokenness I met
A price I pay for mistakes I must not forget

O golden child this world is not your place
You’re not one of them, though you have their face
Your spirit’s untouched, there is not a trace
Of their wickedness, their greed, their fall from grace
They must pay the price- the entire human race

O golden child forgive me if you can
For the pain you suffer at the hands of Man

 

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

I used the first line from Sylvia Plath’s ‘Mary’s Song’ – ‘O golden child the world will kill and eat’.
This poem is for all the children that live in hunger, poverty, in war-torn zones. It’s for the children that our system hasn’t been able to save.

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One Response

  1. Smitha Vishwanath says that she has used the first line of her poem ‘Golden Child’ from Sylvia Plath’s ‘Mary’s Song’. It’s apt to say that she has taken off where Plath ended. Sylvia Plath’s poem is more in the nature of a string of Haiku’s and the last one –
    It is a heart,
    This holocaust I walk in,
    O golden child the world will kill and eat.
    Smitha’s poem is graphic expanding on the theme of the golden child. It’s intriguing for the golden child is always thought of as a favorite and for whom there are high hopes. A child is always golden for it comes into this world as a pure being. Maybe Sylvia Plath wanted to emphasize the fate of a child born during the holocaust in one of the many camps of the Nazi’s where Jews were herded in to wait for their turn to die. One can understand her angst having been born to parents of Austrian descent.
    Four lines from Smitha’s poem make it more poignant –
    O golden child this world is not your place
    You’re not one of them, though you have their face
    Your spirit’s untouched, there is not a trace
    Of their wickedness, their greed, their fall from grace
    Smitha’s angst arises out of the many faces she sees all around her and which is very aptly portrayed by the photograph. It’s a sensitive mind that reacts immediately to visual stimulation. It makes one pause and think whether humankind is so cruel. I for one believe that it’s not so bad. We have gone beyond the holocaust and hopefully learnt a few lessons over the decades. All is not lost, a hope she conveys in the beginning of the poem –
    Dark as it may seem, do not let it defeat
    The purpose you’re there to meet
    The scars on your back and the blisters on your feet
    A small price we must pay for an ending so sweet
    A word about the structure of the poem – one is used to free verse in depicting such situations, so it is no mean achievement to stick to a traditional form of five-line stanzas with rhyme and meter. The poet in her has to be commended.

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