Night Falls on Mayberry
They say that on the night
she ran out in to the road barefoot,
deafness fell for four straight blocks.
A fat, lazy calico stalked the streets,
the crickets chirped and rubbed their feet-
They say that by the time
she tripped the curb,
no one wondered, no one heard
and the girl, lip torn and knees scraped raw
was an apparition that no one saw.
Let us cast our eyes, directionless,
away from other people’s affairs-
pouring our ignorance like a watery cascade
of nonchalant incidents and numbered days
The Danaides own endless parade,
where no one hopes and no one’s saved.
No one sees, no one asks
beyond the framework or painted trim,
and this girl will be lost
on the street where she lives.
Author’s Note: This was….well, IS…. a difficult write.
Not just because of the subject matter but also because of the way i wanted it to sound… it needed to sound slightly disjointed without completely ruining the flow.
No one ever really wants to discuss abuse- there is not a way to pretty up its horror or the effect it has on its victims or their loved ones.
If we, as a society continue to exist only for ourselves and never for anyone else… if we don’t speak up or shout out when we see someone being abused then it will always be that dirty little secret… the thing that happens to ‘someone’ else. But it isn’t about ‘someone’ else. It happens every moment of every day and in every town across the world. Even in yours.