A Poem About Childhood Trauma

Little girl

Whirling

In fears

And tears

Small and afraid

Wishing she could fade

Right out of existence

Was it nature or nurture

That deeply hurt her

Terrorized

Paralyzed

Eyes squeezed closed

Exposed

To a world that feels so cold

She’d hide

She’d abide

By all the rules she knew

Her emotions would stew

An internal inferno grew

She hadn’t a clue

How to live

She was not bad

She was merely sad

Disengaged

Plagued

In a thousand ways

On a thousand days

Overwhelmed by it all

She wanted to leave

She wanted to retrieve

Some sense of hope

At the end of her rope

She sat and she thought

She feverishly sought

Reprieval

Was it them

Or was it her

From whom she wanted to escape

Desperate to reshape

What was left

Of the heart in her chest

Every night

She’d stare up at the moonlight

She’d wring out the tears

Pray for an angel to be near

To hear

Her spirit’s cries

To realize

Her demise

And save her