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.