This amazing poem at the end of this post: “A Princess on Every Street” by Kendall F. Person has made me focus on the real problems faced today by children. What insight! How very well articulated and more to the point how very true. So many of us are the product of such a sometimes cruel world. The third verse particularly resonates with me. So many small girls (“princesses”) and boys (princes) walk among us feeling the pain of abuse, childhoods stolen, unable to speak of their pain because they are children. Many can only articulate their pain well into old age or perhaps never at all. Stolen lives – what an absolute tragedy! Today let us think about those princes and “princesses” and allow our thoughts to heal their wounds. A Question often asked by the abused are “Why (Did you hurt me)? They struggle with the pain for years “When Pain Came to Stay”. They don’t understand how to deal with the “monster” – their abuser. I hope that my poems will touch the hearts of many of you today.
Five Stroke Fourteen (or Look what you’ve made me do to you)
The monster sits beside me
He has a caring expression on his face
“Look what you’ve made me do to you”, he says
But I shrink from his imminent embrace
Because I know
Deep within my spirit
He seeks to control me
The monster touches my bruised and battered face
He did it
In a fit
Of rage!
His hunger for control to assuage
Because I know
Deep within my spirit
He seeks to control me
And control me he does
Because he knows
That I won’t tell
And I won’t yell
“Monster!”
Because I know
Deep within my spirit
He seeks to control me
Slowly, slowly I come to realise
I am nothing, but a punch-bag in his eyes
A thing of beauty to despise
But now I bravely rise
Casting off the fears
Releasing uncontrollable tears
Standing tall and proud
No longer wearing sorrow as a shroud
I am free, free to be Me
Copyright Marie Williams – July 2009
When Pain Came to Stay
I am old and grey, and wiser now,
But does the pain go away?
No it stays another day.
Why does it stay for another day
When I want this pain to go away?
This pain has been my friend
He moved in with me many years ago
I don’t remember asking him to stay
In fact I barely knew his name
But he took the best room in the house
I was only 5, when Pain knocked on the door
“Who are you”, I said, no screamed!
A kick, then a punch, and my body flew
Through the air, Pain was not happy
To leave it there, He needed to leave his mark
Seemed like hours and hours
The hurt and the struggle
Knocking me, knocking me
Hurting me, the tears and the fears
Were born that day
And how that child pain grew
From strength to strength
And day to day, what could I do
To make pain pack his bags and leave
So that I could be so happy and free
I’ll never know why Pain chose me
I guess that will always be a mystery
All I know is that it fed off me
And almost brought me to death’s door
The day pain came to stay with me
At last Pain has decided to go
And will I miss Him? Oh gosh no!
But am I stronger for his stay; did I triumph after all?
Put it this way, the locks to that door have been changed
And Pain no longer holds a key
Copyright Marie Williams – March 2009
WHY (Did you hurt me)?
What is the question?
Why do you ask the question?
I ask because I want to know
The answer means that I can go
To a place, a place of peace
A place where I’ll be able to rest
Safe in the knowledge that at last I
Can say I know the reason why
Is it important to ask?
You will say
Or is it better to know the why
How will it improve your day?
You say
Do you think the hurts will dissolve?
At last will you gain some resolve
Will the problem go away?
Or will it be the same anyway?
Now you confuse me
It’s as if you abuse me
By appearing to challenge
The extent of the damage
Why do you not see?
That the innermost core
Of my tortured soul
Seeks only to know why it pains me
Seems best not to ask the reason why
Best to let the problem die
Best to move forward
And that will be your reward!
A Princess on Every Street
by Kendall F. Person
There is a princess on every street.
We know who they are by their smiling faces,
and silver braces.
We see the pretty dresses that they wear,
and the adorable ponytails arranged of their hair.
We see them skipping down the walk,
headed off to school,
and ready for the world
because they are daddy’s little girl.
There is a princess on every street.
In the broken down apartment buildings,
and in the houses that blot the streets.
We know who they are,
even if they rarely come outdoors
by the songs they sing,
like The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow,
and other wishful things.
There is a princess on every street. Living with abusers
intent on robbing them of a childhood and a future.
We know who they are from the sadness in their eyes
and the bruises on their faces,
that hide the truth in memorized excuses.
We watch them fail their classes
lost concentration, partly to blame.
We feel them close down, isolating themselves
blocking out the world, but still living with the pain.
Clean and dirty, homeless and rich.
Every color of the rainbow,
in every country on earth.
There is a princess on every street.
And the little girls that do not know this,
please deliver to them this message
and let them know…. they are a Princess too.
The Neighborhood Proudly Presents
‘Our Featured Presentation: When the Abuse Stops
a collaborative work with a survivor and her supportive husband
Now Showing
Only @ thepublicblogger.com
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