Young girl, twenty-two years of age
sits on a sidewalk curb all alone.
She is internally torn, externally prone and far from home;
she is emotionally beaten and from her small frame you can tell
that she hasn’t eaten but inside of her brown spiral eyes
you can see a different kind of hunger; a hunger to escape the darkness
she suffered when she was younger. She shies away
from helpful hands because she feels no one understands
the trust raped from her heart and the innocence fondled
that lead to her world being torn apart.
At fifteen years of age she ran away from the pain
but reminders of the abuse remains her metaphorical rain; a puddle
of anger where her feet now stand. Curious eyes surround her
but no one recognizes the child deep inside; the child
who wasn’t allowed to play and laugh/the child
forced to survive on her own in the concrete jungle
living amongst the forgotten and the wild.
No one sees the child who has grown into a young woman
who still remembers; a young woman who will never forget
the hurt that has built her strength and the journey
that has led her to courage to heal. No one sees
the emptiness she has had to refill with dreams
but everyone sees the beauty in her face
because in her survival she has found her destination;
a place within herself where she can be free again
to laugh; free again to feel
and fee again to believe in love.
young woman, twenty-two years of age
stands up tall and smiles towards the sky.
She externally exhales because finally her tears don’t cry.
© 2011
Tarringo T. Vaughan
