This week’s poem addresses difficult subject matter: child abuse.
As a father of two amazing young women, I cannot fathom the depravity or cruelty it takes to hurt a precious child. Physically or emotionally. To hurt any living, loving thing.
It angers me, and I think that anger comes through with the narrator’s final revenge in the last stanza. That wish for some semblance of control, the last wicked laugh, perhaps some sense of liberation or empowerment.
I hope this poem speaks to your heart. If you are in an abusive situation, I pray you find the courage to escape. Or if you know someone being abused, I pray you take action to help them.
Please share your thoughts and feelings in the Comments section below.
-PS Conway ☘ ☘ ☘
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cedar grove
fenceposts mark the boundary
where the cedar grove once grew
now milled and turned
to control the land
to suit your jailor’s purpose
aged bloodstains course like veins
down the woodgrain
so much pain
contained in those loathe newels
each vicious lash a memory preserved
for perverse posterity’s sake
childhood erased in that cedar grove
no beating too great
blood offerings served
to assuage your savage rage
in your cruel kingdom
in that timbered cage
your dying wish denied
no cherished coffin supplied
from the final planks of cedar
instead your bare corpse decays
in an unmarked dirt grave
just outside that fence
Love the revenge!!! I, also, love the imagery in the lines, “aged bloodstains course like veins down the woodgrain so much pain,” You really brought out the emotions of physical abuse. I’d know. I was abused.
Oh, PS! I’m so sorry! Big hugs, my friend. I’m glad this poem resonated with you… I like the revenge, too. 🖤🙏🍷🌹
Beautifully done! I grew up in an abusive family, so I feel this in my bones and I thank you for writing it.
Oh, Emily… first I am so sorry to hear you grew up in an abusive home. But I so truly appreciate that poem resonated with you!
I know you’re depicting a fenced graveyard, but when I read the first stanza I was picturing a cedar house where the abuse happened. A child’s home should be a sanctuary but this one is sadly not. I personally know an abuser who died recently. We planned to piss on his grave but now don’t even care enough to see it.
Let em rot, Naomi! Fuck em, I say… too harsh? Maybe but still really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on the poem!! Cheers m’friend 🖤🌹🙏🍷
I find it to be dark, horrifying and traumatic to even read it. Never abused myself. Very happy, loving parents and family. Maybe revenge is fitting but it serves nobody really. The survivor of that awful childhood deserves peace, love and kindness for the rest of their days. So sorry
Thanks for your thoughts, Fiona. The graphic nature of the poem was intentional but certainly isn’t for everyone… that said, the subject matter of child abuse is exactly what art (including poetry) must stand against. Our own delicate sensitivities should never be the excuse for ignoring it.