Fourteen

Before she took her first breath

She felt the tremble

Of her mother's hands as she

Wrapped her in her own baby blanket

And maybe

She struggles to find

Words for her feelings

Since she first felt

The cold severance

Of December and maybe

She struggles to find words

For her feelings

Since she first felt a connection

Within a trauma bond

Clutched by a mother

Who only learned of her birth

From an after-school special

You used to tell her the story

Of a baby too small to hold

So they put her in a shoebox

Where they could watch her grow

That she was a new being

When they found her outside

So some assembly was required

They had to tear her down

To build her back up again

She was Loved by a mother

who was

Scared of the broken girl

so they

Left in the shoebox where she smothered