Unknown Girl
By PoetonaHill
- 2771 reads
Unknown Girl
Busy office mid the traffic roar. My
phone has shrilled a dozen times before. Now
a girl is crying down the line, keeps crying,
crying all the time. “Don't speak, just hear. I've
taken pills but feel no fear. I random-
dialled, need someone there, unseen confessor
for my prayer, a ghost to know the reason
why at seventeen I chose to die. When
mother went I was alone – though he was
there so life and body not my own. I've
run away but no escape. He traces
me and then the rape. He gets a key and
wakes me in the dead of night. He beats me
when I say, ‘I'll tell,’ or makes to mark me
with a knife. It's living hell, devalued
life. His friends, he says, fill every place from
law and health to Women's Aid. I see a
spy in every face. I can't seek help I'm
too afraid. My very soul must bear the
brand of his misuse and yet I feel I've
no excuse. If God absolves me from all
blame why do I feel this dreadful shame? It's
so unjust! My life's debased by this man's
lust. He won't have me anymore, just find
me lying on the floor...” Leaves me with an
empty line, crying, crying all the time.
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Comments
A horrible, tragic tale. You
A horrible, tragic tale. You do amaze me with your abilities to crisply, concisely tell a tale with rhyming flow that fits the atmosphere of what is being told. Rhiannon
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Wow - this really hits hard -
Wow - this really hits hard - the breathless pace echoes the horror of the subject, and then it's over. As Rhiannon says, utterly tragic
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Your words sent shivers
Your words sent shivers through me. I felt like I'd just descended into the past, not for myself, but for all those women I lived in the refuge with, and listening to their similar stories.
I can only echo the above comments on how well you've written this piece in a poetic way.
Jenny.
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This is so good. Reminds me
This is so good. Reminds me of having post natal depression just holding a telephone and no one to talk to. But so much worse than that. The last bit
"empty line, crying, crying all the time." is like a flatline after the hecticness of the rest, gabbling like sobs. And the shock of this desperation coming suddenly in a busy office. The whole thing through a telephone, not a life line a death line for the person listening. A poem that will be remembered by anyone who reads it
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This haunting piece has
This haunting piece has stayed with me since I first read it, that's why it's our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day.
Please share/retweet
Picture Credit: https://tinyurl.com/ya4qsbbh
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