Thursday, January 22, 2009

Behind Closed Doors

As we mourn for Caylee Anthony . . .

legs Pictures, Images and Photos

Out in the street
chalk lines, half-erased,
echo a child's brief laughter.

A rag doll
once her bedtime friend
lies faceless in an empty lot
waterlogged by endless rain.

Behind closed doors
a mother plays a deadly game
full of smiles and flashing eyes.
Two years of baby hugs quite enough now
~ for the young and beautiful.

Behind closed doors
the muffled cries that no one heard
cries that no one listened for
except the toys ~ who were her only witness.

Pictures on the evening news
flash across the screen tonight. . .
A precious package found. . .
broken, torn and dirty
food for animals,
strewn like treats among debris
pieces of a stranger's child
we knew not ~

~ Yet we mourn together
this little life
as if she were our own.


Joanne Cucinello
2009

4 comments:

  1. so thoughtfully done... such a terrible situation.. i cannot even imagine what the grandparents must be going thru... no wonder the grandfather is suicidal,, i can't even begin to taste the salt of their many sharp edged tears... their daughter,, their granddaughter.. how do you live thru something like that.....

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  2. I don't know how you live through such pain, the nightmares that become real, the terror that fills the heart and the deep sadness that never goes away. As a grandparent myself . . . my heart goes out to them. It is a great suffering to endure.
    Thanks paisley......

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  3. It's a sad poem because it is true...very well written in her honor. Why people can't find another alternative will never make any sense to me. If you don't want to be a mother; there are plenty of us women who do...
    Who try to have children and cannot...this was such a senseless loss.

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  4. Cherylyn,
    Yes, it is senseless and one wonders how anyone can fear a helpless child so much that they would do them harm. It boggles the mind and sickens the heart.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    ReplyDelete

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