Situations 8

Page 9

HOW? How do you give someone what they see in you without instructions? How do you allow others to see your sincerity without losing some of yourself and becoming undone? How do you learn from your mistakes and move on if you’re constantly reminded of them? How do you let 15 years of marriage go

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, & HOW?

without resentment, anger, and grief?

HATS

How do you start a new relationship

Who

without bringing the past ones in?

Who decides how much pain motivates a person?

How do you forgive someone who uses Ex-felon.

the very things that traumatized you to hurt you?

What

Ex-convict.

And how do you let them back in

What right do people have to tell you that your love

Recovering addict, mental health client.

without fear, doubt, and confusion?

isn’t good enough? Maybe it’s all you’ve got to work with.

Ex-streetworker, incest survivor.

How do you tell all eight of your children

Ex-ward of the state on a PINS petition.

that they’ve been adopted because

Where

Ex-foster child, rape victim.

you chose to use drugs and run from your responsibilities?

Where does it state that I am incapable of success

HASA client.

And how do you tell them

because of my past or my ethnic background?

Welfare recipient.

that you don’t know who their fathers are,

Mother of 8.

except for the last two?

Why

Wife.

How do you pretend with the world

Why does the mind store past failures and pain,

High school graduate.

and not believe some of the roles you play?

the eyes play magic tricks, when only half

Music lover (instrumental and vocal).

And finally, how do you tell the very ones who believe in you

of what you see is real?

Singer.

that you can’t handle anything,

And why it is that the heart continues to long

Valedictorian.

that you’re not invincible,

for the inconceivable, the unachievable?

Patient.

and that you can’t handle even this? How

Overachiever.

Sindy Scott-Jenkins

Published poet.

How can you give the world what you never had?

A chameleon: Shamiqua, Candida, Zoraya, Dusty—

Sindy Scott-Jenkins

these were the names I went by on the street. Positive since 1985, a long-term survivor. An all-round winner.

Sindy Scott-Jenkins

Situations

8

Situations

9


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