You murdered my innocence as a child
Stripped in so many ways
With such disregard
For my eventual outcome
You stripped me dry of emotion
Stored in some unreachable place, I gave up.
One might say you must have “some” love at your core but;
You do not; under your supervision,
Is it conceivable that I could?
You stripped me of my communication skills
In that you ignored me in a way that I often
Questioned my own existence
You stripped me of any respect I might have had for my body
As you let it be ravaged at any given time for your own monetary gain.
You stripped me of my voice
Because you constantly stifled it.
Children were to be seen and not heard, remember?
You stripped me of my ability to relate with people
By way of isolation and lack of common personal objects.
The complete lack of birthday or holiday celebrations
Your position screamed assistance
Yet in the end I could have better helped myself.
After years of abuse we part ways on two separate paths
You steamroll on completely unaware
And I try my best to clean up the devastation you left me with.

Christina Bledsoe

Authors Comment:

This is a true to life poem, I have never had a birthday party in my whole life (just turned 29) and I was NEVER told “I love you”, hugged or kissed as a child/teenager. I cannot remember the first 9 years of my life except for several horrific events, it’s like that period of my life fell in a black hole, no one wants to hear about the parts I do remember thereafter, not even me.

Tags: Christina's Poetry //