The Unchained Poet

I wrote the following poem after seeing a poetry prompt from a poetry group I follow (I’m sorry I forget which one).. It asked for a poem following the line from Edgar Allen Poe

“Tell me every terrible thing you ever did

and let me love you anyway.”.

It struck a chord and I saw in my mind a frightened child cowering from a violent upbringing and how that would impact on the adult they were yet to become.

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Tell me every terrible thing you ever did

and let me love you anyway.

Place them in my hands like splintered glass.

I am not afraid to bleed a little if it means you no longer have to hold them alone.

I see through the armour,

the sharp cutting wit, the careful distance,

the hard shell forged in years

of betrayal by hands that should have sheltered you.

I see the child in the corner

when the door swung open

and the night staggered in, reeking of beer.

The child who counted the silence

between the thunder of a father’s rage

and a mother’s stifled cries.

The child who mastered invisibility

while a world of fury burned behind their eyes.

You survived the only way you knew how.

You built solid walls where there should have been windows, letting in the sunshine and innocence of childhood.

You clenched your fists when you just longed

to be held.

And now you stand here,

grown, but still carrying that small trembling soul,

asked to trust,

to soften,

to believe love does not always arrive

with pain and fear behind it.

Yes, you have strayed.

Yes, you have stumbled.

You have both hurt and been hurt.

But I see the frightened child beneath the ruins,

and I love them.

I love the aching, the anger, the longing.

I love the courage it takes

to open the door again.

Tell me everything.

Bring me your darkness and let me help you.

I will not turn away.

I will sit with you in the dark until you remember

And realise you were always worthy of the light.