Is this how it happened to someone you know? -- "One day I'll find the nerve to tell mama, one day when she's not too tired to listen."

It's no secret it's kept a secret how those like me get this way. When you look into my eyes it's like looking into a mirror, but it's more than a mirror, much like a portal where you go to hide if you want to cry so nobody hears you after he leaves.

I grow in ways my mother never dreamed because she's preoccupied with small babies and too tired to notice the look in my uncle's eyes, daring me to tell. I have a boyfriend who will not try to hurt me even when I turn thirteen. He's good to me and doesn't know. He's sixteen.

I jump through hoops to look sweet and innocent, like everybody says I am. I learn well, do what I'm told and sometimes get five dollars I don't deserve.

Look for me in midsummer night's mist sitting in shadows on the back porch, watching fireflies. Now you see me, now you don't but nobody ever realizes I'm gone. Maybe because it only takes a few minutes. One day I'll find the nerve to tell mama, one day when she's not too tired to listen

artwork (c) Mhjohnson 2015