Torn Poem by Huberta Van Akkeren

What heartfelt questions must remain?
Left alone, sent away, then loved again
An angry young teenager alone with a drunken dad
A drunken mum, in a dysfunctional family… so sad

How does a person reconcile,
Memories vivid with stories vile
A young girl on her father's knee
What was or wished to be

Stories that do not reflect her youth
Stories told in partial truth
Memories that haunt her sisters and brothers
Unshared memories about fathers and mothers

What questions a young woman must face
If she is ever to find her place
Torn between parental loyalty
And a harshly cruel reality

Always searching for a reason
Always wary of ancestral treason
Always feeling misunderstood
Feeling unwanted and just no good

If only she could let go of the past
And enjoy what's left of her life, at last
Accepting things the way they were
For others at least, if not for h