Blood dripping, I feel it, but I don’t see it.
It hurts, please make it go away.
Clutching my invisible wounds around my waist
As I slide down to the muddy ground, and
The darkness around me swallows me.
As a child, I remember the torment.
I can see it in front of me….
The brutality of your words being spit out
To a 4 year old me who only looked up to you
For love and forgiveness.
Forgiveness for looking like the man you hate
For being his shadow when I didn’t mean to be.
Enough! Enough!
No more of this tortured memories that I thought I left behind.
You broke my spirit before I could even walk.
But now I can run as fast as the wind.
Sometimes the wind carries me and
I soar up to the sky, kiss the moon, before
The earth beckons me back and I fall….again.
I’ve seen how strong I can be when confronted with brutality.
The fire inside me burns, it burns, it burns me to ashes.
But I have learned to rise like a phoenix from the ashes.
By Flora Folgar