Anonymous Poem: Accepting His Embrace

Accepting his embrace,
was admitting self-destruction
of years past and memories with new truths
of a woman who’d not yet grown.
She was a child at heart and of body,
unsure who could be trusted and giving it freely.

Though she thought she’d learned,
she had more to overcome.
In sadness,
she reconciled
in pain
in laughter
in heartbreak.

The therapy of speech
made her see what had happened,
what choices she made
that led her to overriding guilt
to admitting assault
to reliving it in denial.

After him, years faded
and she grew stronger
through experience
through thought
through instinct
through new self-care.
Still, she his haunted,
by the wrongful acceptance of his embrace.