The Helpless Girl

Sitting on the steps she hums And whispers to herself, Like a leaf in slow wind; She holds sparrows in her hair And caresses her cheeks With their plums, like a princess; All her dreams to float with clouds Have been shattered, like glass, Bleeding her soul; Like many girls of her age She is trapped as a bird' With her untamed beauty. Lines in her palms have been Written with old conventions And rituals not in tune with time. She has come down and climbed Up the same steps without making A noise to wake up sleeping elders; Birds sing the same old songs, Perching at the edge of the roof while Picking seeds from her palm, that Has over grown the dream in her eye.