Sometimes at night

In the faintest light

I can her cry and shout

Her heart filled with doubt

Tear struck cheeks

She trembles as she speaks

Her tiny hands reach out to me

Asking to set her free

She keeps asking why

Did I let her innocence die

Why didn’t I stop him from robbing her?

How could I let myself defer?

She touched me then

Taking me to when

He would ask her sit in his lap

Too young to know it was a trap

He would shift her to the middle, between his thighs

And against her behind she felt it rise

He kept grinding her up and down

Acting like she kept slipping, with a frown

But after a while she heard his groans

And she felt the chill in her bones

Suddenly her uncle’s lap didn’t feel safe

Her purity felt broken and chafe

After that day it happened again and again

And that’s how the story of my haunting began

I can still hear the girl I used to be

Wondering how I didn’t see

Her tiny voice strikes my heart

I should have spoken in the start

I dig my nails deep into my skin

I try to forget his satisfied grin

I don’t wish to recall the smell of pot on his breath

Or the news of his painless death

I can feel the sheer hate in my gut

I suffer it with every cut