Residential Treatment
it isn't what I thought it'd be
I don't know what I had in mind
Perhaps a place to heal,
a place to unwind

But we delve into my conciousness
Past the men who toyed with me
and past the things you'd done to me,
further till my blood ran cold
two figures
a child
a man
my hand in his
as they walk down the corridor
masked by darkness
I dared to cast a glance at him
My eyes returned to the hardwood floor
He opens the door
A dark room, I'm filled with dread
my stomach drops

And then it stops
We're driving home
back in your memory
In your truck,
the place where you hurt me
Your vile touch
Black eyes of greed
Why do I feel safer,
here in the arms of a predator
than where that man took me?

I know how to say the words
But what's the meaning?
Silent screaming and sore throats
There's a pit in my stomach
But where's the emotion
There's a war in my head

our mouths go dry,
our actions get lazy,
our anchors unmoored,
our directions change,
our bearings are misaligned,
our charts remain unplotted,
our complacencies swell,
our greed metastasise,
our ignorance nurtured...


How then,
would our story end?

.

Every Morning
Laying by the window pane
He soaks up the sun

Food in a box
Plastic wrapped
Safe
locked away
Salty
or
Sweet
or
Spicy

I tried to make a salad
what's hiding between the leaves
               Bugs?
Creeping and crawling
               Eggs?
waiting to hatch inside my stomach?
Something sinister is lurking behind the crevices
I dump the bowl into the garbage
I wrap the head in two plastic bags