gauntlet of twins by Kristina Woodhillgaunt twins toddled in their mother's mess
flogged by her indecent emptiness
mother's mother viewed with callousness
shrugged away her shriveled womb, her sagging breasts
feces line this smelly, littered nest
collecting bruises, torsos can't divest
sores allowed to seep, each crest
twins dually robbed of love and innocence
02/02/2011 Author's Note: Adapted from a headline in our small corner of the world yesterday.
Posted on 02/02/2011 Copyright © 2024 Kristina Woodhill
Member Comments on this Poem |
Posted by Ken Harnisch on 02/02/11 at 05:08 PM Been there, seen this in a hundred squalid news articles over the years...but it always hits with a piercing, cutting shriek, and bleeds freshly, each and every time another story like yours emerges. |
Posted by Joan Serratelli on 02/02/11 at 05:55 PM So well put. The last line made me cry. |
Posted by E. A. Pugh on 02/02/11 at 06:57 PM Very intense and beautifully written. |
Posted by Quentin S Clingerman on 02/10/11 at 07:27 PM Shocking regardless how often we hear or read of such conditions. Indeed intense and disturbing. |
Posted by James Blaylock on 03/12/11 at 09:55 AM Children always seem to be the innocent victims in much of life's chaos. What's sadder still is the cold fact that most grow up to repeat the same vicious cycle of pain - that they themselves swam through. So then it's just sorrow bleeding sorrow! |
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