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I Call My Ten Year Old

I Call My Ten-Year Old

I call my ten-year old
Hidden and secluded
Alive in death’s grasp
Unseen yet hovering
Unconscious, subterranean
Felt but not heard
Needles prick chin’s pincushion
Screams echo through
Heart’s tormented chambers
Images flash
Blood red, avatar blue
Not on film’s cellophane
But in cones and rods
Fear in technicolor

My ten-year old answers
Amygdala-like screams erupt
Bubbling through blood and bone
Are lava-like projectiles
Tooth-some daggers that
Pierce night’s skin
Fear’s heavy drapes part
Secrets, once knots, in cavern’s pits
No longer fed by silence and fear
No longer guarded by anger’s blade
Arise transmuted, transformed

Hush, my child
What was no longer is
Shed the snake’s skin
Feel the warm underbelly
Of love and acceptance
Neath its cold cloak
Is the peace you seek

Copyright © Kathleen Kroll | Year Posted 2016

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Kai Michael Neumann Date: 9/5/2016 3:11:00 PM This is very well written. I like the 'implicit explicitness' and it makes perfect sense to see this as memories and as you point out. Transactional analysis? Many wishes, Kai Login to Reply Kathleen Kroll Date: 9/5/2016 7:55:00 PM i've done a lot of meditation and the Buddhist philosophy probably comes through at times, Thanks, Kai!

Andrea Dietrich Date: 8/19/2016 1:45:00 AM this one is difficult for me to entirely grasp but from the ending I can get a sense of what it's all about just in that last stanza. I feel like the child is facing death or suffers from a very bad condition. This is very sad and I hope he/she can find peace. Login to Reply Kathleen Kroll Date: 8/19/2016 9:19:00 AM Hi Andrea, Thanks for your perceptive and objective comments. Perhaps a title such as Secrets of the Ten Year Old Child Within would aid the reader. I was speaking to the inner child. But, yes, this child has suffered some trauma and writing is very healing. This is such a supportive community in which to do it. Congrats on being in the top 100 Community Builders - an honor so well deserved! Thanks for visiting my site.

Frederic Parker Date: 8/15/2016 4:47:00 PM You found my poetry and now I have found yours...had to read this twice as I have a child, or now grown man that has been in and out of the hospital for over 20 years from a car accident when he was 17,I have to say I was touched by the sense of wisdom and understanding that I don't find in many of the poems I read..my poetic friend Login to Reply Kathleen Kroll Date: 8/15/2016 9:37:00 PM That is so very kind. Thank you! I pray your son finds healing. I felt a connection when reading your poem on death. Hope you will visit my site again. Look forward to your next poems.

Kathleen Kroll Date: 8/15/2016 8:36:00 AM Thanks, TJ. Your validation of my feelings brought to light is so valuable. Writing is part of that acceptance process. I admire all the poets on this site who are willing to shed their skins and speak from the deeper parts of themselves. As always, I appreciate your following me! Kathy Login to Reply