His name is Arthur. He is eight years old.
Maybe you can pretend you didn't gasp when you saw this photo.
His name is Zulfira. He lives in a mental institution because he has special needs. He only just turned seven last month.
Maybe when you close your eyes to go to sleep at night, you don't see the children of one criminally negligent orphanage... starved until they, as teenagers, were the size of infants.
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| Thanks be to God, this one is home. |
Maybe you weren't there to cry the day 'Lynnette' died. Her real name was Tsveti.
She died alone.
Maybe, when you look at this picture, you see a spunky, happy girl.
Maybe you don't know she suffers deep psychological wounds from being abused. Maybe you missed the part where she doesn't have a mommy to comfort her when she has bad dreams.
Maybe you can watch a group of happy children at the playground
And not think of Janna, still in a crib in a lying room, soaked in her own urine.
Maybe when you see this photo of Joy
You don't notice the bite marks on her tongue.
You don't notice that even though she's fifteen years old, she is confined to a crib.
Maybe you can click the little red X, tell yourself it's not your problem, and you could never make a difference anyway...
And forget Donovan is starving, his ribs showing through his shirt.
Maybe you can't tell that Julia is a little girl.
...and you don't want to think about why.
Maybe you can sleep at night without seeing these faces....
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| Ekaterina |
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| Irina |
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| Katerina |
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| Ksenia |
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| Masha |
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| Matvey |
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| Enoch |
...but I can't. When I close my eyes... I see every one of these faces. Maybe you can forget. But I can't, and I won't.
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