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January 27, 2015

Overcoming Abuse: Demons We Knew. {Poetry}

Scared Child from Wikipedia

A child sits alone in an empty room.

The light flickers dimly above her head

But she doesn’t see her demons lurking.

And as the light grows stronger, they shrink smaller

Hiding themselves in the spaces between her fingers

In the circles beneath her eyes, and the shadows in her hair.

A fist flies and her innocence shatters like glass on cement,

Screams once drowned out by rainbows and optimism,

Now swallowed by the ink-black silhouette of every nightmare she’s ever had.

Eyes filled with light, colored a shade of darkened obscurity.

Hands soft and unscathed, turned rough and calloused.

The light is blinding.

Turning the room so bright her eyes burn with the intensity,

Walls run together in a searing white hue, while her skin scorches, red and angry.

She screams but no one hears her,

Fights but without a cause,

Flails to gather bearings that are no longer within her reach,

Cries tears…no longer her own.

She stands firm in the blazing remnants of past scrapes, and cuts.

Every drop of blood pooling in her heart, every begging pleading whisper,

A constant stream of You are nothing. You are worthless.

No love.

No hope.

No light.

A child now a grown human being, with wisdom for her years that should be saved for old age

She walks toward the shining beacon of her freedom,

Dragging behind her the baggage of a life lived in fear, and no carry on.

She lets her grievance fall to the floor, dropping her very soul to the mercy of her demons.

The demons she never knew, the monsters of her subconscious that fed on her empty heart,

Like lions do the carcass of a fallen gazelle.

She lets them feast and doesn’t look behind her,

Not once does she go backwards, she’s long surpassed falling for flying.

With wings spread wide she soars, eyes dry and lips upturned.

The room is empty, the light bulb burnt out, a door opened never to be closed again.

 

 

 

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Author: Alissa Bogue

Editor: Emma Ruffin

Photo: wikimedia

 

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