Glurge: Verse describes the suffering of a three-year-old girl who dies of a beating delivered by her abusive father.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2006]
My name is Sarah I am but three, My eyes are swollen I cannot see, I must be stupid, I wish I were better, I can't speak at all, When I awake When my Mommy does come Don't make a sound! I hear him curse I try and hide He finds me weeping He slaps me and hits me He's already locked it I fall to the floor "I'm sorry!", I scream The hurt and the pain And he finally stops My name is Sarah There are thousands of kids out there just like Sarah. And you can help. It sickens me to my soul, and if you just read this and don't pass it on I pray for your forgiveness, because you would have to be one heartless person to not be affected by this email. And because you are affected, do something about it!! So all I am asking you to do is take some time to send this on and acknowledge that this stuff does happen, and that people like her dad do live in our society, and pray for child abuse to wither out and die, but also pray for the safety of our youth. Please pass this poem on as a Blue Ribbon Against Child Abuse because as crazy as it might sound, it might just indirectly change a life. Please forward if you are |
Origins: The above-quoted bit of verse has been circulating on the Internet since at least early 1998, picking up a variety of name changes,
attributions and amendments over the years. As far as we've been able to ascertain, this item was the work Misty Nicole Ramsey of Dell Rapids, South Dakota, who posted it to a college web site back in 1996 (although others have also claimed authorship).
Some of the significant alterations that have since been made to the piece include changing the name of the narrator (the example shown above uses "Sarah"; the original version featured a girl named "Misty") and appending information that urges readers to "Please pass this poem on as a Blue Ribbon Against Child Abuse." (One of causes symbolically represented with
A number of readers have asked us if this item is "true," a question we're not sure how to answer. As unlikely as it might be that a three-year-old could possess the language skills necessary to compose such a piece, it's even more unlikely that anyone could describe her own murder in the first person.
Last updated: 15 March 2006