Tag: abuse
The acknowledgement
I’m trying to be gentle with myself, but what if I never believe my body when it tells me what happened?
Revenge of the soul thief
You murdered my son, Abuser. Though breath still trickles out closed lips, he does not live. The twelve years since his disappearance drag by like a sea anchor pulled...
A legacy of abuse: Telling on my brother
A deathbed confession, 1997 Mom unburdens herself only weeks before she dies. She tells me about Mike’s abuse against his children. Her revelations confirm...
Sometimes I am just like him
When I eat a pomegranate, I cut the red ball in half. I don’t feel sorry about puncturing it right to the core. I don’t feel...
After sucker punch
Some of you will never know what it’s like to crawl on your hands and knees to the nearest pleasant memory. Holding in your tears, any vulnerability is...
When Mom stood by
Detecting abusers is a complex problem. Who is the real villain in the story? As a survivor of childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse,...
Poem for my father
Did you enjoy hitting? My mother, your woman? Did you love shouting? That you never wanted us and to my mother Shut your cake-hole, you mental bitch? As though...
What needs to be said
What needs to be said that you haven’t yet talked about?” the woman from hospice looked at me. I suspected I knew but remained...
Zyxedarian
Zip code that defined a decade: 98201 You’d think I was in Everett the whole ten years but it was only a fraction of that. Xi...