Recalled to Life

[image from robertarood.wordpress.com]

Written for the prompt: Recalled to Life

In childhood,

gentle heart

shattered by violence

and drunkeness,

retreating

into numbness,

making my way

through,

certainly at risk

of making

a too-soon marriage

to escape,

hoping

to create

a home.

Marriage

was a cage

so small,

it took

a jackhammer

and sheer

desperation

to blow

my way out.

But

before

my spirit

even

had time to rise,

a vulture arrived,

and I was

his prey.

This time,

my heart

retreated

into the

frozen wasteland

of a Siberian

winter.

No one

 - but no one -

other than

my kids

was going to

get back in.

Then, one day

in summer,

I walked in the door

of a coffeehouse

full of gentle folk,

beings who

lived

gently

on the earth,

whom I had known

were out there

somewhere,

for whom

I had been

searching

for so long.

I knew

right away

that I was home.

But it took some time

to relearn trust.

I read The Desiderata,

crying

as I read the words:

"You are a child

of the universe.

No less than the moon

and the stars,

you have

a right

to be here."

I had not

known that.

The gentle, loving people

 accepted me.

They gave me space

just to be.

They did not

push.

They let me

feel safe.

In the warmth

of their sunlight,

the wasteland

slowly

began to melt.

My petals

began,

rather painfully,

to unfurl.

I began

to grow,

and then,

in time,

to glow.

My life-song

began

to sing

again.

Hope

had arrived,

and dreams,

and so much

laughter.

From the sad

and

painful past,

from abuse,

degradation

and betrayal,

from the imprisonment

of my spirit

to full and

glorious flight,

I was,

from that time forward,

recalled to life.