BeatenandBruised

By Isabella Nocon

I was once a worried wanderer.

I was beaten and bruised, banished for every word that I said

You saw right through me. You forced me to conform

“I was too drastic,” you said.

“I was too different, too daring, too declaring, too much of a red herring.”

“Too benevolent, too boundless, too benign” “Back in line!” you yelled.

Bounding my wrists together, you spat in my face, preaching about the pleasantries of obeying.

And yet, you still saw the flicker in my eyes, daring you to devise my demise.

And so you broke the spirit from my spent soul, you drained the oxygen from my weary lungs and ripped the words from my distressed jaw

Once a spark now a salted wound, once a heart now a void vulnerable to your vile words.

Kicked to the curb, concrete cut across my palm, I didn’t believe I was wrong, yet why was I so far gone?

You’ve been the archer, you’ve been the prey, but now you are the predator Your fingers curled tightly around the knife as it loomed over my next-tonothing life.

And just as I let the darkness engulf every last bit of me you dropped the knife

I looked up and there you were staring down at me, eyes that once saw right through me filled with pools of liquid

The knife, vacant from your shaking hand. I knew right then this was not what you had planned. You brushed the dust and blood from my cheeks

I was weak and so you helped me to my feet and walked me across the street. You took me in with open arms and a gracious smile, you showed me how to be brave

How to resist the cave of shame because I knew my words had the power to spread like a flame.

My spirit bandaged, restored, my wounds mended my heart open.

You once were beaten and bruised like me and so you locked away the parts you didn’t want others to see.

But in my moments of agony, you saw the catastrophe of who you became A person you couldn’t dare to call by your own name.

Fellow dreamers, this world will beat you and bruise you with your back up against the chain-linked fence, hence why so many are worried wanderers. But I beg you, hunt for humanity, maintain your morality, sing the melody of your enemy, for there is unity in community.

by Chloe Rodocker