Escape

Before and After

In the womb space,
cocooned and coddled,
she knows this is all there is.

Her breath beats a soft rhythm.

Her heart is lamb's-wool soft.

She cries only at movies

or after a fight, when the worst

is a harsh word, a stubbed toe,

a bitter memory of what

she thinks is sadness.

Then--

She is ripped raw and gaping,

covered in holes so deep

she gets lost in them.

Her voice is a silent wail

that echoes in the void

of where her heart used to be.

She collapses in on her own light,

and still there is further to fall.

The past haunts her like a happy child

trapped in photographs,

now raped and stolen,
leaving her to mourn
what she could have been.