I Missed Her Then But It Was

I Watched My Beautiful Sister Running . . . And I Knew She Was Not Running Away From Me Or Toward Me. Like Someone Who Has Survived A Gut-shot, The Wound Had Been Closing, Closing - Braiding Into A Scar For Eight Long Years.

She No Longer Believed In Talk. It Never Rescued Anything.

Once Released From Life, Having Lost It In Such Violence, I Couldn’t Calculate My Steps. I Didn’t Have Time For Contemplation. In Violence It Is The Getting Out That You Concentrate On. When You Begin To Go Over The Edge, Life Receding From You As A Boat Recedes Inevitably From The Shore, You Hold On To Death Tightly, Like A Rope That Will Transport You, And You Swing Out On It, Hoping To Land Away From Where You Are.

What I Think Was Hardest For Me To Realize Was That He Had Tried Each Time To Stop Himself. He Had Killed Animals, Taking Lesser Lives To Keep From Killing A Child

When I Was Raped I Lost My Virginity And Almost Lost My Life. I Also Discarded Certain Assumptions I Had Held About How The World Worked And About How Safe I Was.