Pages full of words.

A secret loosed

From a throat strangled

From a voice muted.

A hard thing -
Sometimes it is
The hardest thing.

Looking back
At blows felt
A captive held
A child dealt
A burning home
To somehow survive in.

Don't look away
From ashes left,
The pain imprinted
The outline of a childhood
Lost.

Institutional betrayal
Parental neglect
Forced peer contact.

All threads that 
Led

To this.

Behind a wall

And fortified

Our hope was locked

Keys were lost

There was no door

Just trapped inside

Cages

Pandemics

Rapists

In charge of us

And we

Could do nothing

But brace 

For the impact

So much worse

Than imagined

But we told

We told you

This would be

The worst thing

Money, power, 

They leave us 

Empty

Wanting

Dying.

But 

Yesterday

On the horizon

Hope rose.

It burst forth

From behind

The dam it was trapped in

New names

New leadership

New poets

New everything.

Not everything

Can be fixed

Not everyone

Is still here

But I am

And we are

So we'll stay

And fight

And be the 

Hope and 

Safety and

Protection

We have all

Sorely needed.

Just because hope 

Exists 

Again

Doesn't mean we don't

Still need

Each other.

Six feet apart

For now, but maybe

Just maybe

Someday,

We'll be together

Again