“Beloved Child” — A Poem for Survivors of Incest
Trigger Warning!
I want to make it very clear that my intention of this poem is NOT to diminish or minimize the pain and suffering of all those who have been abused by non-family members!!! My heart aches and breaks for EVERY SOUL who had to endure such trauma!
Beloved Child
Beloved child,
did they told you
not to talk to strangers
because a stranger means danger?
Did you learn not
to go with them,
or take sweets from them?
Beloved child,
they were right
but they also concealed
an important fact
namely that
mommies and daddies,
uncles and aunties,
grandmas and grandpas,
brothers and sisters
can also turn into predators.
Beloved child,
it was not your fault
if you talked to them,
went with them
or took sweets from them.
You did because you
trusted them and
because you learnt that danger
only comes from a stranger.
Beloved child,
you might never understand
why they did that.
BUT you are not bad
and you did not provoke it.
Your little skirt wasn’t too short
and your little panties weren’t
too tight.
You were just a child.
Beloved child,
you are not the same anymore.
Your innocence and childhood are gone.
You have a right to be angry
and to act out;
you have a right to feel hurt
and to scream out loud.
Beloved child,
maybe you can remember,
maybe you can’t.
Either way,
you’ve been severely harmed.
Your privacy was invaded,
your reality became shaded.
Your boundaries were crossed,
your little soul got shattered and lost.
There is nothing that can ever
make up for your loss.
Beloved child,
I wish I could have been
your savior who
you wished upon,
who you hoped
is going to come.
But there was none.
Beloved child,
I wish that God had spared you,
and I myself try to figure out
why some have to endure
so much suffering
while others have
such an easy living.
Beloved child,
I think about you tonight
when I lie in bed
and also wish
those horrible things
had never happened.
©Elektra, 2022
Thank you for reading!
