Her Body Paid the Price

Her body paid the price when you chose yourself that day, 

               this can’t be real, it isn’t right, she heard the voices say.

A young girl…barely 12…forced to grow up way too fast,

               and the burdens on her shoulders, her shining smile designed to mask.

She screamed and raged at no one, “Please make it go away”;

               In the bathroom, at the courthouse, her family ripped apart that day.

Her body paid the price when you chose yourself that day, 

               this can’t be real, it isn’t right, she heard the voices say.

Then, one day became twenty and the months turned into years,

               while you built another Eden on our heartbreak, pain and tears.

She screamed and raged at no one, “Please make this go away”,

               on a Tuesday in the kitchen, her family ripped apart that day.

Her body paid the price when she chose herself that day, 

               this can’t be real, it isn’t right, she heard her voices say.

You couldn’t let her be herself or let her voice be heard,    

               and shame and shallow godtalk became your final word.

She raged and screamed at no one, hoping someone just might care,

               in the place she spent her life, but now leaves in great despair.

So many joys and losses, tremendous beauty with the scars,

               What’s real and right and kind and true is written in the stars.

From deep inside her body fights, her soul comes out to play;

               Her heart pushing her forward, searching for a brighter day.

She screams and rages louder, now, for all the world to hear,

               For life and joy and peace beyond the shame, the pain and fear.