MAD'OUK (Toughened)

Soft wrinkles on hands

and nails painted bright red

She sits in near the window

looking at the hustling street outside

The weather forecast reads the possibility of a thunderstorm

yet she fears nothing now

For in her heart and in her memories

are events darker and dangerous than this

So as the clouds turn dark

and the lightening begins to strike

A storm begins to rage within her too

drifting her attention to moments of the past

So much was kept enclosed within

so much was left unsaid

Did he run away due to lack of affection?

can't say what brought it all to extinction.

She called him out, really loud

and he must have looked back, at least in his mind

Was it an appropriate accusation,

or silence that was hard to find ?

It's been thirty long years,

since she observed his shadow disappear.

Innumerable storms have come and gone since,

none a match to the one that rages inside of her

So every time they ask - "What's your story of bravery..?"

She says -

"I have let go of people who might have stayed a little longer in the name of emotional slavery.

I have scarred someone for life and have received burns in exchange for something that was meant to be unconditional.

I have been toughened by storms."