So young my eyes, yet
unprepared to be met.
I stood shaking,
Afraid my determination was breaking
It was her party
Her 50th birthday party
First dinner and then wine
Across from the birthday girl I was to dine
By another’s hand she was fed
But mush dribbled from her mouth; bread
Annie moaned, bouncing in her chair
Trying to reach her short cropped hair
Her wrists were bound to the sides,
Of the chair that made her strides
In my stomach I felt something clench
In the wood of the table my fingernails made a trench
My heart had leapt
At home, for shame, I wept