A child
Of innocence
Sent into the world
To sway the tide
And move mountains.
It carries within
Doubts unanswered
Doubts confirmed
By unloving gesture
And harsh silence
Or wooden spoon
Left in the corner
In timeout less grating
Than slaps on the rump
were meant to be.
But the cruelty of silence
Damage the psyche
And births doubts and anger and rage
Poisedly repressed
As the good child learned,
Forgotten completely
To slumber there
For years of old.
They sprout just in time
To seed your own child,
stepped out of line.
And old hurts forgotten
Spur on fury
Alongside
Doaled out punishment
Just and kind
Just as was done
Decades before you
To come to rest
on you when small
and helpless.
And you learned well
Because without thinking
you repeat all you absorbed.
Word for word
Action for action
And haunt your child
in just the way
as burdens you.
(c) 2017Iris B. Struller