• I sat there alone
    In the kitchen so bare
    The counter top cold
    From the midnight blown air

    The curtains were drawn
    The door open wide
    A chair on the porch
    My mother outside

    All was at a standstill
    On that silent august morning
    Yet the events that were to unfold
    Came with subtle warning

    From behind I felt a presence
    My heart paused in mid-beat
    I had no time to turn around
    I felt flesh and metal meet

    The pressing blade quivered
    Just below my jaw
    I waited for the incising
    And the blood his knife would draw

    But I never felt the stabbing
    For his hand began to fall
    I then noticed I was screaming
    And I was pushed against a wall

    I stared into his eyes
    The ones I’d known since birth
    There was no guessing his actions
    For to him I had no worth

    And then I heard a screaming
    The noise was not my own
    My mother froze in horror
    As if she were made of stone

    I desperately ran to her side
    The boy’s face flushed with shame
    I then understood his cruelty-
    To him this was a game

    The day was many years ago
    That I am vividly recalling
    Sometimes I still wake up at night
    With a feeling that I’m falling