Jennifer Wallace Poet Free verse

Daddy

Wanting to know I’m safe.
Wanting to know I’m good.

Needing security.
Needing praise.
Needing courage.
Wanting to be brave.

An hour and thirty minutes
the daylight has been gone.

But in my state of mind
it has been too long.

I need you here
to scare away the fears,
to hide away the tears.

Six years old.

Innocence lost.

Only my sanity
is the cost.

These nightmares won’t
set me free.

I only see
what I’ll never be.

He ruined me.
He ruined me.

He’s installed panic
in my head.

Makes me wish
I were dead.

His deviance
controls me.

Even the truth
won’t set me free.

His power over me
enrages my heart.

He’s taken my soul
and torn it apart.

He took my values
and made me ill.

And yet they expect me
to love him still.

I’ll never understand
this cold, cruel world.

How can a daddy
harm his little girl?

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Joe O'Rouke April 14, 2026 at 11:09 AM Such despair powerfully expressed. The loss of innocence is sad enough but to have it stolen is unforgivable. Thank you for sharing. Jennifer Wallace April 16, 2026 at 2:22 PM Thank you for seeing it so clearly. There’s a different kind of grief in what’s taken instead of given, and it lingers in ways that are hard to name. I appreciate you taking the time to sit with it.