Hold hand

The small girl is lost

Looking for a familiar face

A friendly, kind, loving face

A familiar face

But she is lost

Lost in the crowd

She is turning and turning

Trying to look

Trying to find that face

But she can’t

She raises her tiny hands

And she signals to be held

Signals to call her

To call him

But she is not there

Neither is he

She starts to cry

And then the cry turns to wail

But no one hears her

And she keeps looking for the face

Frantically calling her and him

But they don’t come

And then she sees her

And him

They stride towards her

Hold her and shakes her shoulder

She is furious and so is he

It seems as if she is about to slap her

She continues to wail

Even though she is happy to see her and him

But she is scared

They look furious

And then they tell her

In a deadly whisper

To follow them

And they turn their face and go away

Leaving her there still crying

She scrambles after them

Fearing she may get lost again

And tries to hold her hand

But she yanks it away from her

She becomes silent

What was my fault?

I still don’t know

But since then

Until now and always

I know that I was refused

They refused to hold my hand