Janette Fisher Poet Rhyme

To Know They'Re Safe

They say I’m too protective, not letting my daughters out of sight
Or letting them play out with friends, when it gets dark at night
Am I too protective? If I’m honest, then they’re right
I just like to feel secure in knowing they’re safe

You read it every day in papers, or hear it on the news
That some poor child has been taken, murdered or abused
My life would have no meaning, if my girls I were to lose
So I’ll do my very best to keep them safe

I’ve seen pictures of shattered families - I’ve shared their grief and pain
Knowing that their children they will never see again
Their lives broken, by some ‘monster’ that a court will judge insane,
Parents who probably thought their children were safe

I don’t want to be one of those parents, and have pity showered on me
I don’t want my girls to be prisoners - I want them to play free
It’s a sad social reflection, when you know this cannot be
When you fear, that innocent children will never be safe

So for now I’ll keep protecting them, the only way I know
Keeping them here beside me but as the years pass, and they grow
There’s going to come a time when I will have to let them go,
Then I’ll just have to hope and pray that they’ll stay safe.


© Janette Fisher  - April 1995
This poem was written about 20 years ago 
when my girls were about 7 & 5 following 
a news item about a young girl aged 16 
who had been snatched off a busy high street

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Sara Kendrick June 28, 2010 at 10:18 AM I was more protective of my grandsons because of the seemingly change in society to the bad not to the good...My grandson that is twenty-two I still feel that protective..But I have had to let him go on his own and I still am concerned about him but of course he has HD and I am not so sure that he is capable mentally to handle himself out there...Sara

Margaret Foster May 3, 2010 at 6:32 PM It is every parents nightmare you describe. To keep them safe you must do your best and when the time comes for them to fly,as you say, hope and pray they will be okay....well written Janette...cheers Margaret

James Fraser April 10, 2010 at 11:30 AM Janette, i always wanted to know where my kids were when they were little. They always played close to the house. But as they got older, made new friends, sometimes they strayed further. But i always tried to know where they were. Super poem >> James