Before and After


By: Christa Gartner


You stole my life!

My childhood ripped away from me

My happiness died

My soul rotting like a corpse



Have you no morals?

Do you not think?

Would you do this to your own children,

Or just your baby sister?



What did I ever do to you?

You stole my innocence!

I was always an outcast

BECAUSE OF YOU!



I was always so different, so afraid

Wishing I was like everyone else

Wanting peace and love

And finding none!



I hate you!

But I will not take revenge

You’ll learn the hard way

Like all the other monsters



I will not judge you

But you should worry

I will not judge you

But GOD will!

There will be justice!



Christa J. Gartner




AFTER



As I sit here thinking

I wonder how I’ve managed to change.

My childhood was taken away from me.

Since the age of three, I have been an adult.



But I have changed.

Acceptance has claimed my soul.

How could it not?

I will not die in incest’s wake, I won’t!



I don’t make a lot of money

But I am the richest woman in the world!

Not many people love me

But I am loved more than anyone.



I think of my dad

And I frown

He never helped me

And so I feared all the more.



I think of my mom,

and I smile.

I remember the laughs and cuddles,

But I remember the tears as well.



It hurts me

There’s nothing I can do

But since I am loved,

I can take on the world.


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