Where Do the Grievances Go?

This coming of age

Painful and long-suffering

This coming of age,

It took time 

It took triumphs, and exploitations

It took torment and new beginnings

Returning to my knees, time and time again

In surrenderance to the hazy vision ahead

“Look Up, Look Up,” He continued to whisper.

And so she looked ahead.

And in this new location, unfamiliar, yet yielding…

I think of the numb moments.

The cloudy episodes.

Doing as told

And what should be done. 

Being told why I shouldn’t care.

All while reacting “as I should.”

But this coming of age

Harrowing yet revelatory.

To remind me of the memories that occurred,

And the brutality that was stored,

Against this once pure body of mine.

And there it was, 

Plain and clear.

The brutality I was taught to raise up against oneself.

The unseen wounds, the stench far too gruesome for those nearby.

Nothing is right

Nothing is correct

No one will stay

And then came the withdrawal, the retreat.

O this great coming of age.

To tackle the recollections.

And give them a new name.

In correspondence to who she’s become this day.

Tackle the thoughts and destroy the grievances.

Destroy the Grievance that she bore on her chest.