NaPoWriMo #13 - Left Behind

Left Behind

When I was 7 or 8 

I would wait in the car

Outside the grocery store

Or the bank

And cry

In fear 

I’d been abandoned 

Not by mom

But by You

Because I’d been told You would come

Unannounced 

To take the good

Or, when she was late coming home

My shaking hands would hover 

Over the touchtone phone

Deciding which saint to dial

Just to hear their voice

Or not

When I was 7 or 8 

I had learned to have no faith in myself

The collateral damage

of broken beliefs

I knew 

In those terrified moments

I knew

I was alone

I knew 

You had taken her 

I knew

You had left me 

I know so little now

There is so much I have

Left behind