Through A Glass Darkly Poem by Sheena Blackhall

We knew that a rape was ongoing
We heard her being flung across the room
Thudding into the walls, like a flung sack
Screaming and sobbing, pleading for her dad
(Though he was far away, not known to us,
And nor was she, poor thing, a total stranger)

It was 5am on a glorious sunny morning,
Both of us in the house on the top floor
Stood appalled and frozen
Like eavesdroppers in a horror movie
Two wise monkeys, choosing to see no evil

Afterwards, the girl fled, still sobbing
‘Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! '
Into the warm day, that was birdsong sweet

He'd vanished too,
And so we both crept down
Lifted the toppled sofa
Binned the torn-out hair (a mousy-blonde)
Tidied the incidental breakages

Before we knew it, the house was quite itself
A quiet house again,
Where nothing disturbing happened
Like a pool in loch, after a stone's been tossed
The ripples gone like mist, the hurts stitched up