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Weeks and weeks and weeks

My stomach is as thin as a pencil

Old, dirty fur covers my skinny body

Waiting to be helped, waiting to be homed

All I have is a sheet of newspaper

To rest my homeless body

My heart, my poor empty heart

Waiting with fear, for someone to rely on

I drink from puddles and eat left-overs

Scars all over me, each with its own tale

Barely able to see, fuzzy and blurred

I lay here fearing the future

My old, weak tastebuds hardly alive

Waiting for a proper meal

Sadly I lay, waiting for someone to rely on

Clean, groomed dogs walking about

They’re showing off with their owners and leads

Tears well up in my eyes

All I want to be, all I was made to be

I want to be ‘man’s best friend’

I don’t have family, I don’t have friends

I wonder how this horrible life will end

I am a stray dog and

All I want in life is

Someone to rely on

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Evie Bishop wrote this when she was 10. She is now 19 and interested in making films. She lives with her family in south-east London.