REDUCED TO A FILE

AM SORRY MY CHILD
you've been reduced to a file
they no longer call you Ndaona
they refer to you by case number
in their choked legalese

That yo have (had)
dreams and ambitions
they don't care
they don't see you,
don't see the tears in your eyes
they don't see the pain in your face
they don't look at you,
they only look at the file
you've been reduced to a file, my child

No one cares that your  youth
is being wasted
they don't realise you had dreams
but they're now dissipated
they don't take time
to talk to you,
to actually know you,
you're reduced to a file

You're dying inside
and they don't notice,
if they notice they don't care
you don't have a name,
to them you're just a case

Am sorry my child
you've been reduced to a file
they no longer call you Ndaona
they refer to you by case number

You're just a character
in a piece of fiction
your hopes and ambitions
frozen on a piece of paper,
which they call a file
am sorry my child,
you've been reduced to a file,
reduced to a case number.....