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Open Poetry #25
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it wasn't my business (repost from way back when)
| Open Poetry #25 |
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it wasn't my business (repost from way back when) |
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hoot_owl_rn Member Patricius
since 1999-07-05
Posts 10750Glen Hope, PA USA 
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it wasn’t my business she was three years old with blonde hair that hung in ringlets around her small face and i couldn’t help but notice how she rarely wore shoes how ragged her tiny ill-fitting clothes were how she never smiled and how the bruises in different stages of fading she wore like battle scars on her body i noticed it all but it wasn’t my business her mother was only 20 petite quiet and pretty she worked days at a local restaurant making tips to pay the rent and i couldn’t help but wonder how sometimes even on cloudy days she donned dark glasses or how sometimes even in the summer she wore long sleeves and a turtle neck i wondered about it all but it wasn’t my business her dad was in his 30’s and i was told he once served time for armed robbery on a local grocery store he sported a mass of tattoos as black as can be and a temper to match he stayed home all day drowning his life in the bottom of a bottle and at night through the thin plaster walls i could hear his shouts of anger cursing and fists hitting the wall as he showed his disapproval at his family i could hear it all but it wasn’t my business and today i stare at a newspaper laying on my cluttered dinning room table and the front page story in stark black and white gives the account of how last night a mother and her 3 year old child were murdered at the hands of husband and father and i can’t help but think about how last night out of my pleasant dreams i was awoken by screams and i struggled to go back to sleep slightly disturbed by what i finally realized and i thought perhaps today i’d call social services but it really wasn’t my business or was it? . . . (Let's all make it our business) ~ Ruth If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. [This message has been edited by hoot_owl_rn (04-04-2003 06:58 AM).] |
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| © Copyright 2003 Ruth Kephart - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
I remember. When we see a person only once in our life, and notice some of these things, but rush of time, place, lives push us on, all we can leave behind in our wake is a prayer... but when we see these people day after day...and we don't reach out...I can only hope that God says a prayer for us. You reach out, you make a difference. You always do. Hugs, my friend. It's never too late, or too often, for a repost like this. |
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regards2you Member Elite
since 2002-10-01
Posts 3940California |
Ruth, Am so glad to see this. It is our job to call the child protective social services, listed with operators and in all phone books. I've done it. Maybe can't do much for a battered woman yet until she is dead but, social services will take a look....if child is obviously bruised, neglected, etc. even then sometimes nothing can be done....but, at least all will have been done that could be....you never know it might be a wake-up call for all involved... Good for you, posting this sensitive issue. Hugs, Pat  ..without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.. |
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passing shadows Member Empyrean
since 1999-08-26
Posts 45577displaced |
gripping write...I agree |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Bravo!!! I remember this - and it caused tears then and now. No matter how many times we see this, it still cuts like a knife. Well done!!! |
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