No One Can Lift Her
(Refugee Camp, Kutupalong, Bangladesh)
She is on the brink of tears
but no one has seen her cry.
She's guessed to be five years old.
Her ulna was smashed
by a bullet aimed at her father.
Doctors wait for her
to climb onto her bed.
She refuses help.
The bullet that smashed
her ulna, killed her father.
She sleeps fitfully
awkwardly with her back
against the bamboo screen.
Luckily the bullet
lodged in her father's body.
Her ulna has been fused,
tendons transplanted.
Full use will recover.
She wriggled out
from underneath her father's body.
Elephants used to freely roam
where now is makeshift plastic
sheeting and bamboo cane shelters.
When no one watches, she slides
onto the floor and sits to sleep.
Here in camp she might get some
schooling that was denied
in the place she was born.
She's never asked
where her father is.
© 2022 Emma Lee
Emma Lee’s publications include The Significance of a Dress (Arachne, 2020), and Ghosts in the Desert (IDP, 2015). She co-edited Over Land, Over Sea, (Five Leaves, 2015),and was reviews editor for The Blue Nib, reviews for magazines and blogs at https://emmalee1.wordpress.com.
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