Her eyes are wide with fear and sorrow,
her blond hair loose, dirty, and unkempt about her face.
She clutches a broken doll with missing eyes and arms,
staring off into her own world.
In this world there is no disease,
no orphans , no thieves.
No hours of staring into a mother’s blank, eternal eyes,
no screaming of siblings as their lives are ripped away.

Terrible sorrow, lost and without a clue,
praying that the sun will cease to rise.
She was tired of leaning out of the upstairs window,
crying to the empty road for food, water, or a place to stay.
This was not a place for a child so young,
for an orphan with nowhere to go.
But there is no choice,
and no help to be had.

The streets outside are lined by abandoned buildings and homes,
with the occasional cry of another lost child or dying soul.
Caught in the midst of this ghostly town,
she is terrified to recall her memories, but also to forget.
Soon she will become another lost being,
to prowl this Earth for eternity.