PAD Challenge - Day 8 - My Body Still Remembers

Today's WD 2014 April PAD Challenge prompt felt far to apropos. In fact, just reading the prompt made me gasp for breath. April 8th is far from my favorite day of the year. I've talked about this before, so I'll not dwell on it now. The prompt for Day 8 is actually a Two for Tuesday prompt. The first prompt is to write a violence poem. The second prompt is to write a peaceful poem.

In a way, I was almost relieved by the violence prompt. My mind was already pulling together lines to address violence in a poem. The peaceful poem was more of a struggle for me to write. I wrote both, but the peaceful poem feels a bit hollow at the moment. Because of that, I've decided to share only the violence poem...

I dedicate this poem to all the survivors of violence out there...

My Body Still Remembers

My body still remembers
How you violated it
On a cool, Spring night
When I still believed in loyalty
My nerve endings ache with memory
My heart cries bloody tears of denial
My soul screams as scars open once again
My mind dies with every remembrance
The violence inflicted on my core
By your betrayal as you took
What never belonged to you
The force of your touch
Etched into my cells
Forever taking up residence
The passage of time
Tricks me into believing
My body can forget
That moment when you violated
My entire being
Leaving me shattered and alone
Unable to find myself
In the pieces of who I’d been
The woman in the mirror
Suddenly a stranger
Standing in the wake of
The girl you ripped to shreds
Yet, tomorrow I will arise
I will move forward
I will survive
I will thrive
In spite of the way
My body still remembers
T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

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