Home » Poems » Sara Kendrick » A Safe Place Tainted

A Safe Place Tainted

Each day the yellow school bus made its trek around the country roads dotted on each side with pine thickets, fenced in pastures, garden spots, peach orchards and then stopping at neat, well-kept country homes. The denouement of the young teen girl who lived in one of those homes waited until today to speak. late summer, new teacher who taught math.... violated girls Humiliation for seven months, five days a week, forty-five minutes a day. No math taught by this teacher. In fact, he probably could not teach the curriculum assigned to that level of study. He put his hands on one girl in that classroom in an inappropriate place. Then he talked about his brother-in-law who lived in another state. The class went untaught except in several areas; that it was okay for a person in authority to violate a member of the opposite sex, its okay not to fulfill one's responsibility on a job, its okay to talk negative about other people even if they are family. girl destroyed forever She survived. It sneaks into the crevices of her memory from time to time rearing its nasty head saying tell let the whole world know about this man who has long been dead. No, she is better than that, she is stronger than that, she sometimes has problems and knows it was this man who put a permanent hold upon her mind, will, and emotion.. the grave his name engraved.... she spits