Not safe .

The world is not a safe place
we all learn that
But we should learn gradually
and run to our mother's knee.
Not harshly, overwhelmingly,
at our father's hands.
Our innocence lost,
our pain unshared.

The world is not a safe place
we all learn that.
There are those we can trust
and those we should not go near.
But we, the Betrayed,
with undeveloped perception and dying hope
choose the wrong friends,
the wrong husbands
and lovers
and in a neverending circle
Betray ourselves.

The world is not a safe place,
we have learned that.
We know not to love
not to reach for friendship
To kill our hope
and endure our pain.

Is this all there is?


I see the young Mum walking down the arcade
her tiredness palapable, but her love for her child obvious.
That baby will be safe.
Or safer than I was.

I see the family at the shops,
Mum, Dad and three young teens.
The girl moves towards her father
and looks him in the eye with a happy smile.
How can she do that?

I see the young woman going into the dress shop
surrounded by friends.
A happy group the four of them,
laughing as they match clothes.
How did she get friends?

They may have pain and broken trust
but somehow it stays in it's own compartment
Whereas mine has oozed out
and made every facet of my life a sticky mess.
Like congealed blood.
Nothing is clean.

Can something be saved from the mess?


The world is not a safe place.
But now I must learn to live in it.
To give without demanding
To accept without retreating
To be open to hurt
that I might gain joy.

And to relax, rest, let go
that I might gain peace.

(c)1999 Trickie.