Reminders of an abuser
Forty years later
You reach out from the grave
to remind me of your crimes
My body wears the scars again
of diseases from my past
A doctor's exam reveals
Latent infections reborn
To cause me pain
Words like surgery, biopsy and cancer
Spill off her tongue
Like fists pounding in my gut
I feel relief that she listens
But am blocked from my pain
Other feelings numbed so
I can make it home
Where I am safe.
Anger and rage that still
he infects me with his evil acts
waits until I am ready to feel
Too numb to ask the questions
I need to ask like
If it’s cancer what then?
Or can it be treated?
Will I be OK?
A few days later
I talk to a friend
And the tears begin to flow
A childhood lost
Memories rekindled
More pain to endure
And knowing it won’t end
A legacy of the past
We will treat it now
And wait to see
What the biopsy shows
And if I’m safe
I’ll have to wait
To do it all again
Because it will never go away
Until I die
He’s dead and gone but still
He reaches out to touch
Infect, destroy
Traces of the past
Won’t fully go away
But still I know
I fight for life
Until this journey’s end