50 People - 27 Poem by Raj Dronamraju

27

The crudely drawn flower tattoo on her hand
She wants to keep as a reminder of that other life
The one she spends a lot of time trying to forget

"Never again" and since that time, she's been handed a lucky break
She never wants to go back to the days of gritting her teeth and taking that invasion of her body trying to hustle enough for a Kentucky Fried Chicken snack plate and maybe some cigarettes

They'd taken away most everything bad with intensive therapy and the love of adoptive parents but they can't take away the night after everyone's asleep
The night is the stage for uninterrupted thought to perform on
You pray for interruption
You can't wait for interruption

So there is now a room with books in it and a puppy and non-biological parents who do the job better than real parents
And you utilize every ounce of joy coming from this
But as you create a real person
You can't leave out the earlier experiences as an ingredient