By Shem Onderi
Too young to be an adult,
Too tender to carry the weight of motherhood,
A teen mother learns too early
What only time should teach.
She is discouraged,
The government frowns,
The church weeps,
And the chief laments in the village square —
Yet her heart remains unheard.
A national concern,
A silent tragedy,
A teen mother cannot feed herself,
Still clutching schoolbooks and pens —
Weapons once meant to shape her future.
She pays no taxes,
Has no idea where tomorrow begins,
Still learning how to nurture
The child she carries within.
No identity card bears her name —
Only a school number,
A reminder of dreams interrupted.
Her tears fell
The day she lowered her guard,
When innocence was stolen
And her world intruded upon.
Now her tears go unnoticed,
Yet hope is not lost.
She can still rise again,
Still choose differently tomorrow.
Elderly mothers mourn her fate
As she joins their ranks too soon,
Sitting shyly in the clinic queue,
Lost among seasoned women,
Unsure which test to ask for first.
Her classmates cry,
Her desk sits empty,
The hockey team misses her winning shot,
And the maths teacher, with quiet sadness,
Puts away a new formula
He meant to share with her —
For solving life’s challenges.
Now she rocks her child,
Whose hungry cry echoes her own.
The milk is little, the tears are many,
And both mother and child weep together.
But she has learnt —
Through pain,
Through silence,
Through sleepless nights —
Never to let loose again.