Lament of a Street Girl

Lament of a Street Girl

By: Patrice Lawrence & Lathania Brown

Why are you looking at me in such a disdainful,

Contemptuous, condescending, supercilious manner?

Yu tink me couldn’t be where you is?

But yu si, mi lef high school wid no CXC.

Cyaan get no work, cyaan get inna UWI

Haffi beg pan road, cause me belly hungry

An’ nuff man a try tek advantage a mi.

Unnu si mi clothes dem, so unnu try judge me

Unnu si how mi a stagga, so unnu tink mi a junkie

But a tru unnu nuh know

Mi Smart enuh

But  a tru unnu nuh know

One year ago pon hundred lane

Man buck off mi door and’ cause mi nuff pain

Call out mi moda an’ mi fada name

Imagine, how mi did feel

When mi si di weapon, dat mek outta steel,

Mi fly unda di bed

Mi head start wheel

Only lawd gawd alone know how mi neva squeal.

Bouyaka! Bouyaka! Mi si mi moda die

Bouyaka! Bouyaka!

Mi fada blood a fly

Woi! Dat was a day

Lawd! Dem neva play

Dem neva play

Mi neva have nuh fambily

Mi neva have nuh fren

A me one lef, fi mi self mi haffi fen!

School did ‘ard, mi couldn’t concentrate

‘Ow mi fi learn, when mi fill wid so much hate?

Ova an’ ova di scene dem start fi play

Mi see di blood a run

Mi see di blood a spray.

That’s why mi lef high school wid no CXC

Cyaan get no work cyan get inna UWI

Neva know mi wuda be a ol paupa you see

An’ everyday a like she mi ah get more crazy!

Ah me one and God inna di two by four

So till I couldn’t pay di landlord nu more

So now mi haffi live pon di streets

Do anyt’ing and everyt’ing fi eat

Mi ah ongle seventeen, an mi inna so much pain

Ah mi one and God haffi stan’ inna di rain

Life hard! Life rough!

Mi can neva get enough!

But ah survival mi deh pon

Mi nah watch nuh face

Ah circumstances, problems, ill fortune

Why mi inna dis state

So mek use ah High School

An’ get yu CXC

So you can get a good work

Or get inna UWI.

Yu nuh haffi grow up fi be jus’ like me

Yu have brains, yu can be sumbady

Yu have brains

Yu can be sumbady!

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