Broken Life Poem by RoseAnn V. Shawiak

Cut down as a child, life seeped from within, forming
puddles reflecting the one who should have been.

Seeing, collecting, what could be saved, storing the
images, fragments, in chests of steel.

Secreted in the innermost recesses, maybe signifying
some future hope or dream.

Life spanning years, unable to reach or touch the
memories stored, frozen solid.

Lids, covering horrors of past abuse, anger kept in
pots, frozen, unable to boil or bubble, unrecognized
and kept immersed in fear.

Control unable to be broken, treasured for it's worth,
it's sanity, it's safety.

No reprieve, everything is their fault, death awaits
those who choose to tell.

Terrible nightmares are at times totally true, events
really happening in daylight hours.

Mind turned inside out, wanting to hate, wanting the
anger, but it would not come out.

Organized abuse, fulfilling the wishes and lust of
grown men, taking away the life of a child.

A life which that child can never regain, a void
filled with the loss, and pain.