The Secret

Locked in an emotional closet
Restrained by turmoil and fear
No one hears her crying
Forbidden silence in her tears.
A deep dark secret held inside her
Her heart tortured by the lies
Told by the man who she calls daddy
Using love as a disguise.
Then as she grows older
From her voice, there is no sound
As if the secret has cut her throat
Her mouth, been gagged and bound.
She tries to break the silence
But it falls on deafened ears
No one wants to listen to
This girl's hell that's lasted years.
This girl, now eighteen years of age
Has never been a child
For from the tender age of three
Her trust, love and body were defiled.
By this man, I must say once again
Who, "loved his little girl"
Then took every once of her little life
And darkened her rose crayon-colored world.
He mutilated all her Barbie's
And tore up all her paper dolls
He stained her baby dolls with shame
Took the air from her bouncy balls.
For though, not literally did he do these things
Can't you see what he has done?
He's destroyed her innocence, her childhood, her life
Before it had ever begun.

© 1994 Jami Hampson