Uriah Hamilton

For seven years
she lived her life in a foggy mist
of domestic abuse and self denial,
trading in her heart
for a paltry suburban house
in lieu of a home;

but it became too much for her,
seeing her eyes die in the mirror
like an ancient friend,
finding her own breath as stifling
as watching her dreams fade
like old clothes on a wash-line in the sun;

so she and her friends
decided she should move away
from her substandard paycheck of a husband
and return to the city of her youth
where she was happy and hopeful;

maybe in time her self-esteem will grow
like a baby snug in the womb,
first lightly kicking with emerging identity
and later bursting into life.

It takes a long time
to become a fully developed dignified human
aware of self-worth.