That Once Upon a Time
by Steven Craig
Once upon a time
A girl was born with a future she did not understand.
It was hers from the first day but no one spoke of it.
It was a need she would always feel and could never escape or leave behind
Yet
It was always just beyond her grasp,
beyond her vision,
her secret dream.
She voice it quietly,
with hope that another would tell her,
point for her,
hold her,
insure she understand,
but no one dared.
She felt alone
Totally alone
No matter how many friends surrounded her,
she was her own built-in outcast
She needed,
she had desire,
she had a will,
a life to live,
but it was not hers without some missing part,
some moment when she was touched
held and told that she mattered,
that she had a place that she belonged to someone.
Once upon a time,
she needed it,
hurt for it,
cried for it,
suffered for it,
but what was it...
what was this answer that drove her to the deep end to consider a different end.
No one told her she suffered from the deepest need of all,
to give,
to serve,
to please,
to be controlled,
to feel another's strength,
the will of direction,
to know hope for the first time in her life that she was understood.
No one told her but left her to drift
until she reached that place
where all girls end in bleak loneliness
without hope of retrieval.
And there she stands,
innocent of the world,
waiting for the light,
the voice,
the grasp that will take her.
And there she waits,
solemn,
quiet,
determined to find out who she is
and why does she matter at all.
01/10/2016
