I Bloomed Violets from Violence

View the showcase,

my display

through the blue-coloured lens.


Cue the sound 

of

children of some kind of 

civil war in 

all our heads 

Haunt our house. 

Shrieks and bleakness

<starved and barren> 

Opioids in her dresser.

She swears they 

are not there, but 

I saw them. 


This vessel

This pit of 

chaos in my chest 

You must keep it

safe to say you

will not know 

me. Until 

you feel it kick. 


What I say,

What I do,

Benevolently construed.


Feelings of safety.

I put up a fight,

still pried from my

bloody hands.

At all costs,

They will make me

the victim.

In spite of,

I protect us.


Feelings of trust. 

Robbed of, young.

I do not trust a 

soul. But I do not 

Trust myself more.

Betrayal peaked in and

Abandonment

crossed by and 

I might be next 

to walk out the door. 


Feelings of worth. 

Never occurred to me,

until now.

I do not deserve

anything I have earned,

nor anything that pained me.

Taking the blame

is always default.


Feelings of intimacy.

You would say 

these things

You would mean 

another. 

Rejection popped in and 

There you go,

Gone again.


Do not leave me alone

All these intrusive 

thoughts. Invasive. 

In a moonlit room.

Reflecting, 

Panicking.

My nervous system tweaking.


There is no 

rewiring or

balancing chemicals

or magic tricks or

substances.


How could I be 

practical?

Meanwhile the die are

rolling and everything

bouncing around is 

discourteous.

Repeating on a loop.


People are not my cup of tea

when I feel like the target

of an unwarranted nemesis. 

I wish I could 

Wish you well.

Disdain spills over.


You say you love me.

Yes! You do love me.

But I have been loved before

I have been left before.


Feelings of control.

I am in and out of it.

Off the walls,

Spiraling. 

Nothing is under 

my control. 

Reacting.


Thoughts running

rapid. Flashbacks 

I can’t snap out of. 

Mind movies replaying 

of things that nobody

should have ever 

done to me. 

Dissociating 

to disconnect

before my brain

short circuits.

Now I do not know

I am out of control.


Hypervigilant 

Everyone is out to get me.

I am the target.


I am ambivalent

of every single 

one of you. 

Still benevolent,

even though 

you have caused this 

turmoil.


I am 

Resilient.

I will not 

Be still. 

I am persistent

Even when

I am the only one 

pouring into the cup.


I bloomed Violets 

from Violence.

Katie Allison Garness

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Where the Angels Should Have Been

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A Bruise in the Shape of a Ring