In the woods

there is a nook

a rock

shaped like a chair

it’s where

he touched my hair

and dipped his

hand

between

my seven-year-old legs

he pushed his way in

he pushed me down

I remember too much

and it was over, then,

how I saw the world

once open and innocent

now dirty and violent

and a child can never un-see

a moment lost,

that timeline notch,

five minutes that mark

a before and an after,

that moment still lingers,

five minutes taken from me

with his forceful, driving fingers,

and I still want them back,

all these years later

these almost 50

years later,

I want them back.

~

Please consider Boosting our authors’ articles in their first week to help them win Elephant’s Ecosystem so they can get paid and write more.