The Boogie Man Poem by CHARMAINE SIMPSON

Do you know what it is like to be scared?
When I say scared I don’t just mean frightened
Like when you’re afraid of the dark or the boogie man
What I mean is have you ever been terrified?
In living fear for this may be the last day of your life?

Do you know how it feels to be hit with the fist of a man?
To be smacked so hard the physical pain is no longer felt
Only absolute fear reigns within as death enters your thoughts
While your body responds pitifully curling into fetal submission

Do you know what it is like to have your soul drained?
When someone steals every last emotion leaving emptiness
I mean so completely empty that you can hear only an echo
Of the last tears cried right before your heart died of despair.

Who I am today is an outcome, a result of violent brutality
I will put it in simple terms so that it may be clearly understood
I am a product of what remains when hell chews you up and spits you out
From its cold dark dungeon filled with merciless nasty anger

Sadly I am now often misjudged as I may not respond as you do
I may not see, hear, act or behave as you or others choose to do
Do not punish or ridicule me if my perception and response is not what you do
Do not place an expectation upon me to live and conform in the way you do

I have clearly lived in a world with no guarantee or promises of tomorrow
This means nothing foreseeable or predictable strangled with insecurity
So when what I do does not correspond or equate to what you choose to do
Pause for just one moment to consider the obvious fact
Quite simply – I am not you