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Please, Sir

Sir, you have money for me?
A pleading voice halteringly asks
Begging in one-sentenced English
Taught by the teenage food vendor
Who watches her from across the road
And often needs to use the same plea

Sir, aney, please, sir?
An outstretched hand added to the voice
Dusty calloused bony little fingers
With mud-caked blood-caked nails
Attached to an even bonier dark arm
Belonging to an emaciated child's body
With a face hollow, dirty and still so young

Sir, one rupee, sir?
The puffy reddish white face turns to her
From high up above and so far away
She starts her litany in Sinhala words
Rapidly a life story unfolds, uncomprehended
Of a fate so tragical it's never believed

Sir, my mother died from starvation
Evoking with truthfully tearful eyes
A haggard skinny woman in stinky rags
Who looked more than twice her age
Who loved her unwanted daughter
But couldn't provide for her at all

Sir, my father died from an accident
Telling of a weary poor old toddy tapper
Who fell from the palm tree one day
Who didn't love his unwanted daughter
Beating his useless wife every night
Because the money was never enough

Sir, my brother was sent to prison
Remembering with longing and terror
The elder boy giving the finishing stroke
Who started stealing to fill her stomach
Who never considered her unwanted
Yet ruined both of their young lives

Sir, I'm all alone, hungry, thirsty, sick
Concluding the tragedy depicting her life
Looking up with big black blank eyes
Stretching her small hand a little further
Silently admiring the mysterious tourist
Her life depending on his doubtful mercy

Aney, please…
The little girl is out of words to plead
And the foreigner out of time to spare
Impatiently he waves her plight aside
Another fly to swat away carelessly
Another nuisance to spoil his holiday

Sir!
But he's already half out of sight now
Cursing the government hypocritically
For not eliminating the beggar problem
Off to his splendidly cool 5-star Hotel room
Ignoring his guilty conscience stubbornly

No more desperate words from the girl
Defeat doesn't come easily though known
Maybe she will be luckier next time…