The Things She Salvaged

As she looked back on how much she’d grown,
she couldn’t help her eyes moisten with tears that brightly shone.
Tears that she promised she wouldn’t let herself drown in,
fears that she had left behind and wouldn’t ever get pulled back in.

But now that they sat right across her,
with expressions of guilt so easy to decipher,
she felt her heart thump at a thousand beats per second,
trying her best to not get affected by their presence.

“Why?” was all that she could manage,
in return but only shame, regret and irreparable damage.
Memories of the past flooded her mind,
violence, betrayal and pain was all that she ever got in kind.

Loneliness, gloom and darkness had been her only companions,
when all that she had needed was the love of those by whom she’d been abandoned.

“Was I never enough or did you never care?

Where were you when I woke up screaming from my nightmares?”

Her cheeks were now stained with tears, her eyes all puffy and red,
after all these years her buried emotions had finally found an outlet.
This house, these cars, these gadgets — she had earned them all herself,
but this success meant nothing to her for she had no one with whom she could share.

“We’re so proud of you dear and so very sorry.”
And in the heat of emotions, her agony became blurry.
As they hugged her, she couldn’t help but whisper,

“I forgive you Ma and Pa, I just wish you could bring me back those lost years.”