(Warning: this poem discusses the effects of sexual assault, and may be disturbing to some readers.)
Back and forth I travel, searching
for her – retrace every bend, curve,
detour – back to the water, the sand,
the beach where I lost her…haunted
by velvet brown eyes – bedroom eyes,
they told her, men with greedy loins,
calculating – I lost her to the lure of
alcohol, to the pounding beat of drums
in those smoky corners so far removed
from the purity of our dreams…
It’s been an arduous journey, some days
so lost in the daze of forgetting; I cycle
back, memories of manhood exposed
egos craving stroking, learning
what men wanted, learning to numb
disappointment with fast-talk
and all-nighters, suppressing tears
discovering that words hold no promise
and water is deep, and going within
is a dark, foreboding place, and worth…
is shrouded by the discovery
that the father she adored was not
as we’d thought, and that this primal
urge for mating was a trap….
designed to eradicate beauty,
not enhance it…
I need to find her,
hold her afloat in sacred waters,
help her feel the healing light
of a thousand women’s hearts
all bleeding as one,
all tainted by the same
convoluted messages –
that lust is sinful and copulation
a man’s domain, and that in order
to be espoused, she must forgo
her nature – tame the wild
settle…
but as much
as I travel these lonely roads,
I cannot find her, the traces of
her innocence washed away
by the tides…lines now
on this aged face
If you see her, please
hold her close…
hold her until the beauty
of her being is solid knowing
and the shame vanquished
Hold her till she understands
the light she was born to be.
( Wayward Daughter first appeared here in February, 2017, and was published in the anthology: We Will Not Be Silenced: The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault…, by Indie Blu Publishing, 2018. This version is edited. I am submitting it for my weekly challenge: roads. Art my own.)
Heart wrenching piece! 👍🙏🙏🙏
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Thank you!
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Please visit my blogs
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Lovely pictures.
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Those are blogs not pictures please open them
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I did open them.
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Thank you mam
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Welcome
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I am following you mam
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Lovely
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Thanks.
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Agree with all these comments… beautifully done, and hard to find words to express how much so, in a way that does justice… the ending is poignantly uplifting.
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Appreciate Lia. As I said, I changed the ending from the original here. Time for a shift.
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This should be published was my first thought. Good to know it was! Great reading, V.J.. You really read your poems wonderfully. Great ending!!! Emotional impact!
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Aw…thank you.
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Welcome! Really well done!
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Awesome! Heard the recitation, you are gifted with very nice talent 👏
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Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time.
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Touching words that needed to be said! Bravo!
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Thanks Eugi!
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You’re welcome, VJ!
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Heart touching. Love your art work always.
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Thank you so much.
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Welcome 🙂
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Beautiful and moving!
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Thanks Betty!
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It’s so powerful! Each lines are so emotional that it brings tears to the eyes and an ache in my heart.
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Thanks so much Joyce.
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Yes, and VJ’s reading of the poem is exquisite.
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Powerful words and amazing art that also speaks volumes. You have captured the core sorrow so well and the search for the lost innocence “washed away by the tides” that seems never ending. But your ending seems hopeful to me maybe because of the beautiful last line: “the light she was born to be”.
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Thanks Sarah. I changed the ending from the original. There needs to be a point of healing, don’t you think? Appreciate your thoughts.
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I hope this gives you strength VJ
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Thanks Brian. Appreciate the sentiment.
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I have thought and rejected several responses to this. It is so raw and emotionally real. I know of no words that would adequately express my thoughts.
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Rebecca, I appreciate your response. Women are literally the givers of life; we need to learn to treasure them more.
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That was exactly my thought as well, Rebecca. I am incredibly moved by the poem, but I lack the words to adequately express it.
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I think that there are times, when there are no words that would be adequate to express the emotions brought about. This being one.
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Yes, I agree.
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Thanks Liz. It was a pulling myself out of the darkness moment, when there was nothing but to come through the pain. You know, when life tripped me and held me down so I had no where else to run, lol.
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It’s a testament to your strength that you were able to come through it.
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Thanks. I know I am not alone.
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You’re welcome.
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Very powerful and emotional. Thank you for sharing! ❤
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Thanks for reading.
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