child

Fists

Did you hear about that boy?
I did – he’s so young!
I wonder what caused it…
I heard his mother didn’t love him.
But why do something so horrific?!
Maybe she did it to him when he was small…
He’s on steroids now.
I blame the father…
He left when he was little apparently…
I wonder why…
I heard it was because of the child.
So maybe it started then even!
The fists?
The fists.
But I just think of the poor mother.
I’ve seen the bruises.
This is too terrible.
Better not get involved.
It’ll go away.
It always does.

No it doesn’t
PUNCH
Bleed
Bruise
Broken

The act of growing up?

She just wants to be touched,
have someone reach out and grab her…
Make her feel like she’s worth the pain…
Let her know she can make someone
feel that way.
She puts herself out there;
she knows one thing:
she isn’t ready.
But everyone else is doing it!
Maybe this is what it means to grow up…
She doesn’t know but she will,
she will because she’ll be hurt:
and she will be scarred;
and she will be damaged;
and she will be broken;
But that’s the only way
someone like her will learn.

A Fatal Truth

I’m told it’s okay to be me,
but you don’t know how it feels not to be free.
It’s okay to say that things will get better,
but sometimes they don’t.

Nobody notices someone who is in the dark;
a shadow of my brother because he’s the spark.
My parents walk over me like mat;
they wipe their feet on me and smile to him.

I don’t want sympathy, money, even love –
Just want to be noticed, acknowledged, smiled at.

Then I think…
Not everyone is meant to be great;
mediocrity, depression, loneliness: my fate.

Tide of Truth

She walks onto the sandy beach
With a smile on her warm face.
She picks up a stick which is drowning
In the sunlight and begins to draw.
The end of the stick shifts sand
Into a loving heart.
Inside a giant
Letter for him
+
Letter for her.
She smiles as he looks onward
And chases her along the beach
Into the shallow waters where
They embrace:
Teenage lovers.

The wind blows her hair
Into her eyes as she stares at
The flat horizon of the sea.
She thinks – deeply – and glances
At him walking slowly towards
Her and a tear leaks from her eye
And makes the water saltier.
As he sits next to her
She just puts her hand on her stomach
And he realises what he has done.
As a wave crashes she realises
That’s not the only thing that
Has just crashed.

The overcast weather matches
The grey threads emerging from her scalp.
She walks slowly along the shore
Allowing the water to softly lick
Her journeyed feet.
She passes a young child and
Wonders whether her child
Will ever return her calls she
Has left for several years.
She comes across a heart drawn
In the sand with
Letter for him
+
Letter for her.
The water quickly envelops the meaning
And retreats leaving behind
A blankness; a truth.

She: sea water.
Child: shaped sand.
Truth: given up forever.