SHOULD HAVE TOLD.A Poem by Terry CollettA WOMAN WHO WAS ABUSED AS AGIRL LOOKS BACK AND TELLS TOO LATE.Should have told them years ago, you mutter to the windowpane, told them about the man who had said he would take you to see the place you used to live in the country and to show you the old cottage where you lived with your family as a girl, but he didn't, he molested you in his car, once he'd driven into a wooded area, and you and he were alone, and you said: what are you doing? You've asked for it, he said, asked for it each time you gave me that smile, each time you laughed at my jokes. You became dumb, words wouldn't come, and even though you tried to stop him, he did it anyway, and you watched him like an onlooker to an incident out of your control. Once he'd done he lay back in his seat and said: our secret this, and he grinned. You looked at your dress, how he had ripped it at the end, and how to explain that. Our secret, he said as he drove you back again, and dropped you outside your workplace. But you said nothing; just went home and said you'd torn the dress at work, and threw your underclothes in a bag and in the bin. Now years have past after your umpteenth mental breakdown and now at the hospital in the lock ward at the barred window, the psychiatrist behind at his desk, and you had told him it all: just poured out of you like vomit all over his desk, in his face, in his middle-class ears, and he your abuser, dead now, probably for years. © 2016 Terry Collett |
StatsAuthorTerry CollettUnited KingdomAboutTerry Collett has been writing since 1971 and published on and off since 1972. He has written poems, plays, and short stories. He is married with eight children and eight grandchildren. on January 27t.. more..Writing
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