Don’t Look Back..

This poem by Alla Renee Bozarth touches me deeply...


Don’t look back,
battered child
Time then hurt you.
Let time heal you.
Don’t look back. 
 
Don’t look back,
beaten child.
They knew not what
they did except what
was done to them.
Don’t look back.






Don’t look back,
abandoned child,
abused, neglected child.
     Denial is salt in your wounds.
     Dwelling is repeating
     the deliberate disappearance
     of your soul.
     Don’t perpetuate this harm.
           Break the cycle,
                            wait -
                                           stop it here.
Speak out the paralyzing secret
and begin to come back to yourself.
Cry it out to compassionate ears
and be held in the hearts of your witnesses.
The truth shall make you free
but first it will shatter you.
What was broken can be mended,
what was lost, restored.
Find yourself, then,
pure and whole, a child of God.
Look back long enough to let go.

Alla Renee Bozarth