the maid

many months ago
on a Sunday evening
eating roti prata
somewhere in sembawang

a few tables away
sat a sri lankan maid
alone
sobbing away

some shop workers
stood around her
listening to her tale of woe
consoling her

she came many months ago
from her home in sri lanka
to work here
friends told her
she could make money here
as a maid

money she needed
for her poor family
a husband who drank day long
and hardly worked
and two young ones yet to school

but her life here
was no bliss
from dawn to night she worked
with nary a pause
sweeping, washing, cleaning, cooking
endlessly
with no minute of rest
and no day of rest
scolded, beaten for mistakes she made
no one told her that a maid here
was really a home slave

uprooted homesick helpless
yearning for her family
she ran away
looking for help
she sobbed

her owners came
hunting for her
took her back
to their home

the maid
a lesser being?