Showing results for "broken republic" in Parenting & Relationships

The devil whispers in my ear, “Your mother can never know about this… it will kill her if she ever finds out.” Fear quakes in my six-year-old body. Shame saturates me like a soggy mist. I draw an X across my heart, cup my hand around his ear and whisper, “Cross my heart and hope to die! I promise I will never tell!” I am VOICELESS.

I began teaching children to dance. The joy and happiness it brought to their eyes, how their body language changed. I knew instantly I was watching their hearts speak. It was then I knew my purpose in this life was bigger than me. Bigger than teaching dance.

I wrote these poems incrementally, but collated, edited, and recorded them collectively. A process that was at first therapeutic and then brutally revealing. A lot of the pieces touch upon regret, lost possibilities, and missed opportunities born of trauma, neglect, mental illness, and fear, as well as the desperation that comes when you find yourself searching for hope inside of darkness.