7. Hurt

 

It didn’t hurt.
I didn’t feel pain.

 

If I had, it would have been unbearable.

Perhaps I would have blamed someone.

 

I feel pain now for the girl I was.

Perhaps that is why I remember joy so vividly.

She let joy fill everything,

so pain would not be exposed.

 

But hurt refused to go away.
It did not know what to do.

 

Like a frightened deer caught in blinding light

exposed, frozen,

not knowing where to hide or how to move.