Parent and Child, Part 2
The Other Side of the Coin
This article, Part 2 of Parent and Child, is kind of a downer. Well, not kind of. Not every child is wanted and loved. Here are three poems depicting difficult childhoods. Just three out of infinity. If taken across the centuries, they would be uncountable. These children need to be seen and heard as much as —even more than —the cherished ones.
This little poem delivers a punch to the gut far beyond its brevity:
Secrets In the closet of swallowed secrets the child pupated to a stone, wearing his necklace of abuse an invisibly flashing neon noose.
While we have symbols to celebrate the defiance of, and courageous victory over, diseases like cancer, survivors of child abuse have no symbol. Their secret is wrapped in suppression, fear, shame, anger, a veritable alphabet soup of emotions, all causing an invisible, lifelong, haunting pain. And when a few brave ones do tell their story, how often are they believed? If believed, how often silenced to protect the perpetrator?
And as the coin remains thus, imagine the myriad circumstances that could cause these two incidents of separation:
Last Chance Unjustly vilified, you arrived at the orphanage, shaking with fearful anticipation of the outcome. This was your chance to repair the damage and bring her back to your picture book life. This was your chance to reclaim her, to undo life’s bruises and dress her in a pretty frock. But, brainwashed by the vilifiers, she said no and turned away. Rejected you. Dismissed you. She didn’t know that silent slap her eyes threw across your anguished face would banish your motherhood and soon enough her own when she watched her sobbing child recede in the rear-view mirror.
Belying
That smile blinds the day
like a bolt of energy
erupting from the page.
Now, that is joy.
See how he presses
his two kids close to his sides
as he kneels to their height.
See how his glowing face beams
I will never leave you.
As it turns out, picture imperfect.
Circumstance had other plans.
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