I was seven going on to eight
aside from the occasional biscuit
taken from the cookie jar I knew nothing
about stealing

At my Convent school
all the Teachers were nuns
gleaming and whiter than white
told us a lot about Jesus and all he did
for all of us

One day before lunch break
Mother Superior who was the Headmistress
walked into our classroom with a young girl in tow
around her neck was hung a banner 'I am a Thief' it read

That young girl looked so ashamed
tears raining down her eyes, she shook & reddened
we were asked to boo her as Mother Superior called her bad
she had taken what did not belong to her and stealing is wrong
we booed as she was marched to all the other classes to be shamed

I knew from that moment
without a shadow of doubt I would never steal a thing
and will always stick to the straight and narrow and do right
looking back  it was a cruel and mean thing to do but what a lesson

I still see that poor crying child
still feel her shame & the boos & jeers of us others
worse was the public humiliation & playground taunts thereafter
that poor child never lived it down & a year after left the school

It traumatized her and me also I suppose
for I  make sure at all cost never to steal or take whats not mine
so imagine how I feel when thieves burgle me & then unashamedly
turn the tables round and try & make me the subject of humiliation

I have done nothing wrong so stand in truth
each and everyone in their camp is that poor fearful little girl
scared witless, desperate, ashamed, lonely, humiliated & disgraced
never to feel comfortable and accepted among-st peers again

I can see why these disgraced thieves and racist rogues
are sso desperately projecting all their fears and angst at me
angry, humiliated, in deep fear they need to blacken and destroy
these disgraced children with the banner round their necks
" I AM A THIEF" yes and they wear it in their minds for ever...........