Be Happy With What You Have

• Nihasan Shanthirakumar, Grade 8
• Poetry
• 2018

When everyone sleeps,
My father works.

Tirelessly, without complaint,
He works; he provides
For his family.

Years of warfare
In his mother country
Created a man,
A man of resilience,
A man who needed to make decisions,
Life-changing decisions.

When everyone is having fun,
With their fathers in the holidays,
I gaze at the clock for countless hours,
Waiting for my father to come back from work.

But then I remember there are children who have never seen their fathers.