What does it mean to crouch behind
A name that isn’t yours
Done changed the first one just enough for hiding
A date of birth, mostly the same, except for 10 years short
The lies –
like pebbles
in our shoes
we’re finding.
A Grandpa we thought ours alone
Still married to another
Abandoned darling wife and son,
And then there were the others
A daughter 8, and 6 and 4
This wife he’d never harm
Dark night they slept
Is when he left,
For some new set of arms.
As years they passed,
Wife looked for him –
Her girls – they had to eat
He’d hurry just a step ahead
Now working down the street
Then ‘cross the town
And round the bend
The changes helped him hide
He’d not be found, nor made to pay
“Won’t push ME to provide.”
Looking out for number one
His wife and girls – still waiting
Alias married well again
A beauty, Educated.
They had four children, he stayed on
It looked like he’d stopped running.
Yet could not sit and chat awhile
Required too much cunning.
The friendly sort, although he be
He kept his heart a distance
And one by one,
so did the generations.
Not knowing they were acting out
behaviors fit a cheat
Had mimicked walls that harm all good relations
What does it mean to crouch behind
A name that isn’t yours
Done changed the first one just enough for hiding
A date of birth, mostly the same, except for 10 years short
The lies –
like pebbles
in our shoes
we’re finding.
Amelia
P.S. “And the truth will set you free…”
Live the poem!
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Meant to say LOVE the poem. My phone would rather “live.”
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Heart breaking! And the sins of the fathers continue on to the third and fourth generation unless we pray to be healed from them.
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This trip was very healing in those ways.
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Wow! This is deep. This sounds like what you told me in a message. So there were three families, and none of them were aware of the others? What a sad, sad story! This is a prime example of the adage that “truth is stranger than fiction.”
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2014 03:35:36 +0000 To: judi_n_dave@hotmail.com
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Yes, three families, and who knows if there are more. But the three we found we treasure. Heart breaking, and wonderful all at once, because family no matter how we all came to be are treasured.
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Wow, I don’t think (hope) he’d get away with such a thing now. And for heaven’s sake why? What’s the point really? I like that you put this in lyrical form, it honors you and the innocent victims while it effectively shames/ causes pity for his obvious emotional short-comings. Tough to balance, but you wrote it well!
Kassie aka Mom
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He got by with it because it was a long time ago when there weren’t dozens of ways to hide. He changed his name before social security numbers were dispersed. He just used his new name. Sad, but true.
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Reblogged this on …because healing spreads and commented:
Today Aunt Margaret Died. Experiencing the full implications of her losses and what a strong beautiful woman she was insite of the abandonment. Thankful today she is with her loved ones who have already passed.
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