No Photograph Poem by nudi ??

content warning: child abuse

there is a photograph of us
in the garden me with a baby
frog cradled in cupped hands you
looking on wide-eyed
picking at your fingernails
in anxious wonder

but there is no photograph
of him wrestling
you to the ground
like he thought
he was in the ring

nor of your face
as you looked up at me questioning
why i didn't reach for a folded chair
to crack over his head

but i remember it still
do you?

i remember the tears that welled wordless
in an instant wet & close
as my own the kind you cry
when you know you have no say