NARRATIVE: "BEHIND CLOSED DOORS" BY VINCENT HOSU

They told my mother,

“Your child will be fine here.

She will eat, she will learn,

She will have a better life.”

So I left home

with a small bag of clothes

and a heart full of borrowed hope,

believing tomorrow

was waiting behind another door.

But the door closed.

Before the sun remembers my name,

I am awake,

sweeping yesterday from the floor,

washing plates taller than my hands,

carrying loads heavier than my dreams.

“Girl, hurry!”

They call my name

only when there is work to do.

School passes by my window

in white uniforms and laughter.

I watch from behind the curtain,

wondering what it feels like

to hold a book

instead of a bucket.

They say I am part of the family,

but families do not count your meals,

families do not turn kindness

into unpaid labour,

families do not make a child

afraid of the sound of footsteps.

Sometimes,

the bruises disappear before morning.

The tears dry before visitors arrive.

The house becomes quiet,

and everyone pretends

nothing happened.

That is how the secret survives—

behind polished doors,

behind beautiful houses,

behind words like “helper”

and “she is lucky to be here.”

But I am not a servant without a voice.

I am a child.

I have a classroom I should know,

a playground I should run through,

a dream that should not be measured

by how quickly I can wash a plate.

So when you see a child

standing silently at another person's gate,

do not only ask,

“Whose child is she?”

Ask,

“Who is protecting her?”

Because behind some closed doors

is not a happy home,

but a childhood being stolen

one chore,

one insult,

one silence at a time.

And somewhere inside that silence,

a child is still waiting

for someone to open the door.

© VINCENT HOSU 

-Nigeria.

“Behind Closed Doors” by Vincent Hosu portrays the painful reality of a child who is sent away from home with the promise of education, care, and a better life, only to become an exploited domestic worker. Instead of attending school, the child spends her days performing exhausting household chores and carrying responsibilities beyond her age. She is treated as a “helper” rather than as a member of the family, while insults, fear, and physical abuse become part of her daily experience.

The poem contrasts the child’s harsh reality with the joyful school life she observes from a distance. It exposes the hypocrisy of adults who claim to care for such children while denying them education, dignity, safety, and affection. Despite her suffering, the child retains her identity, dreams, and hope for freedom. The poem ends with an appeal to society to look beyond appearances and protect children who may be suffering silently behind the doors of seemingly respectable homes.