HE LEFT HIS SHIRT.
Though young, she had a heart so warm,
and missed those arms that carried her.
She is just four, too young to think,
but has a heart as soft as fur.

She saw her father's shirt on hook.
She missed his odour and his gifts.
She plunged her head between its sleeves,
and blamed his voyage without her.

She did not know where he had gone
as she was too young for such trips,
but urged her mother that they should
go after him as life got void.

Her mother cried but did not say
his land was far; she did not want
to grieve her daughter, so she said,
" He left his shirt; he would come soon."
BY JOSEPH ZENIEH
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