The Stain of Their Eyes

Terror exists within the lights.

I can’t see clearly at all.

My eyes strain to look around,

they were so big; I was so small.

My body was so exposed.

With every part, I am ashamed.

I have nobody to tell my secret,

nobody I could have blamed.

Their power was most important.

Their reputation needed to be kept.

I am to be sacrificed for their glory.

While deep inside, I wept.

Cameras became an object of evil.

Pictures were never the same.

Is this the meaning of power?

Is this necessary for fame?

They always had to be in control,

My pain couldn’t exist.

Appearance was everything,

My sense of self was dismissed.

Who I am is not known.

I exist isolated within the mind.

A secret keeper, I must not tell.

My heart is confined.

I cried and screamed but was not heard.

I had to go whether I liked it or not.

The signs were there in plain sight.

But the truth was never sought.

I am imprisoned deep within.

Unknown to any of the others.

They called what I went through

lies that I must uncover.

I exist in loneliness and pain,

Longing to be seen.

I endured things beyond my years.

That’s why I am thirteen.

I need trust to reveal myself.

But trust, I don’t have.

I fear I won’t be believed,

that you will say my story is crap.

I recently learned what year it is.

Though my mind is still in the past.

I can’t believe it has been a few decades.

And the years just passed.