– The Kindness of Strangers –
Through the years of my youth,
I was made safe by benevolent predators,
by those who would offer their protection,
but provided only the abuse of my naivety.
I gave them the power over me to take freely
of the love that I had never been given.
There was no other way for me to compare
that sense of right and wrong which comes so easily
to those who have been raised with care.
Yet in time I learned their true nature;
To speak the names of my tormentors
removed their power over me,
gave me the freedom to choose
how I wished the world to see me.
The damage done lasted for far too long;
Even in the presence of kindred souls,
I was still constantly craving their more toxic attentions,
rather than any kind of genuine affections
from those who would love me for who I was.
I was acting from the memory of pain,
the belief that they could only ever seek to hurt me.
I was raging against the silence of those kinder strangers,
raging against the faces that had turned away from me
when I had most needed to be seen.