Victim

I remember as a little girl On a visit to an aunt’s friends house I was sitting reading a story book As quiet as a mouse I asked to be pardoned To go to the loo They were all playing dominoes So I knew what I must do I opened up the door And placed my foot on the first stair Then I heard someone in a low voice say “Are you sure that she's all there”? I felt a tear run down my cheek I was doing what I ought Only speaking when I was spoken to That's what I was taught When I’d done what I had to do I went back down the stairs The domino game was finished And there were four empty chairs They were all in the kitchen Drinking cups of tea My aunt she turned to me and smiled And handed a cup to me She noticed my tear-stained face And stroked it with her hand I told her what I’d overheard She said I was too young to understand I was insecure throughout my childhood Never felt like I fitted in Undernourished because I wouldn't eat Now I’d just be classed as thin From the age of five My time at school was fleeting Feigning illness to avoid the bullies And escape another beating I remember cowering In the corner of the school yard Cigarette butts stubbed out on my arms Left painful, sore and charred Name-calling and violence Made me feel inferior Set upon by bullies Who thought they were superior When I became a teenager Things they got much worse The bullies were now older Younger ones they would coerce To taunt me and lie in wait And leave me in a battered state When i got my first job The bullying it went on Because my face didn't fit I was put upon Got lumbered with the dirty jobs That no-one else would do Like swilling down the filthy yard And scrubbing the outside loo One afternoon, the manageress Secretly asked me whether I would do sexual favours for a delivery man And I reached the end of my tether I got my coat and quit the job Never looking back I later heard that the manageress Was found out and got the sack Now that I am older No-ones victim will I be I stand my ground, nobody’s fool And i am happy being me