My Child

I am learning how to wrap my arms around my child

That part of me that was reduced to ashes

(Little did they know that I would rise again)

It is both hard and simple

I cannot do what I never learnt

All I know is that I need comfort –

Warmth, flavour, kindness, strength

The feeling inside that I deserve(d) to be young –

And that I can take back what was stolen

I do not need pictures to know what I was –

They were ripped up anyway

Maybe that’s why now I turn to words –

I am giving myself a different education

Undoing the wrongs –

And imagining how things can finally feel right.