

I didn't ask to be born
in this world full of conflict
I didn't ask to be born
in the middle of a devastating war
I didn't ask to be born
to a couple about to split up
But the world has been good to me
I saw many of its beautiful places
I didn't suffer hunger or cold
I found my partner - my missing half
We have a boy like him and a girl like me
Did we have the right to be happy
as long as somewhere on earth
a woman sees her child die on her breast
while already feeling a new life
she knows she can't feed either?
Did I have the right to be happy
when other girls on this earth
have to go about veiled, with downcast eyes
and change hands one day
from their father to an unknown husband
as if they were a head of cattle?
How could we rest easy on a world
where people are victimised
because they are the wrong colour
or speak the wrong language
or worship in the wrong church?
Where an honest day's work often
doesn't earn an honest day's pay?
I don't believe in life after death
I don't believe I'll ever come back
But I believe my spirit will live on
In everything I did or failed to do,
In every word I said that praised or hurt.