By: Penny R. Adams
Honorable Mention · Adult Writing (2023)
By: Penny R. Adams
Honorable Mention · Adult Writing (2023)
Listen, daughter, listen to my heart, to my love.
You won’t listen to my voice, scolding, pleading, shouting,
“Eat, please, won’t you eat – just a bite- one small morsel?”
It will sustain you ‘til tomorrow and all tomorrows of your life.
As your mother, I’m not finished. I need to see you grow.
Let me hug you and feel flesh instead of knife-sharp bone
Jutting from your back
Like lofty mountain peaks.
Listen, daughter, listen, as my voice crackles with sadness.
You wear a mask of golden hair hiding your green eyes-
Those strands like prison bars keep out the world you knew,
But keep in blackened thoughts that confuse your fragile mind.
Let me lift your locks again into a wavy, ribboned tail.
I promise not to pull too hard. Your eyes can open wide.
You’ll be free to smile and laugh.
Free to be.
Listen, daughter, listen as I cry from my pillow.
You are a gentle whisper, a precious beam of sunlight
That dances in the middle of a hundred thousand lives.
Don’t believe the demons whose voices scream inside you.
They taunt you. They connive. They lie.
You’re not fat, you are perfect – an offering from Heaven.
Stay with me daughter. Listen.
Please don’t die.