Appeasement

Based on past experience.

Must I flutter tear-soaked lashes so demurely when

You saunter on by?

I fear the tiny stir of air will stir your rage.

Even my fearful fairy steps splinter the eggshell insulation

That locks you deep within the confines of our bleak little house.

Call upon me when you lust, when you mourn, it’s all the same;

Each and every disgruntled whisper sends me, shaking, to my knees

Like gravity and all the forces of nature cackle away with you,

Leading your arm, landing your blow.

I want to flee, I want to go

To a place where every shadow is not

The waiting fisted hand: judgmental, full of scorn.

Have the powers that be judged me, an ugly duckling

Where Earth is a swan? Mangled, grey feathers blot my mirror view-

As does the fractured glass, crimson and streaked with pity.

A shadow I must be, pain a film of nothingness

And from its choking confines I’ll kneel:

Whisper sweet nothings through clenched teeth and done a gaze of awe

Through tear-soaked lashes.

Reviews

[Lydia Shutter]

Monumentally sad. The brutality you have endured is horrific. Your words are powerful and intense. I hope you are able to move onward and realize you never deserved the treatment you were forced to tolerate. Lydi**