Eching Question
Since I was a child
An unspoken question
Has echoed in the hollow
Of my body
Carved by sorrow –
Where were you?
When your chubby baby boy
Climbed out of his crib and
Crawled into the cold bathroom
Where he ate Drano and
Burned himself with lye –
Where were you?
When your wily toddler
Pulled himself up onto the ledge
On the second floor and fell
Through the screened window
Down onto the bushes far below –
Where were you?
When your sensitive six year old
Sat crying on the seawall before
She slipped backwards and fell
Twenty feet to the rocky tidal beach
Landing in the lone sand patch –
Where were you?
When your eight year old son
Was hit in the head by a hammer
Thrown by his nine year old sister
Meant for a door, but catching him
Instead, blood flowing everywhere –
Where were you?
When your fourteen year old daughter
Confused by the subtle, yet loud
Familial messages on sex started
Sleeping with multiple men
And contracted a venereal disease –
Where were you?
When your oldest teenage daughter
Began riding off into the night
With guys on motor cycles
Coming home late and high on
Drugs and skipping school –
Where were you?
What I, your grown daughter, now know
Is that lost in the oblivion
Of your own pain and confusion
You left us in the care of a string
Of strangers because you loved us.
You were there for us
As much as you were able –
At the end of each crisis
Bringing us back
From the brink of destruction.
We, your children, survived,
And became strong
On the undercurrent
Of your love that I now know
Was always there.
Copyright © Krista Kurth | Year Posted 2009
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