Eileen Breedlove

FATHER OF TIME

Something about time puzzles me
For in healing it goes so slow.
No matter how many years pass by
There are things that won’t let go.

To a child burdened with suffering
It seems that time stands still.
Why must it go on endlessly
For a heart and soul to heal?

Why must one go all their life
With repercussions from grown up ways?
Is there no mercy over time
For the nightmares to go away?

It just doesn’t seem right to me
That a victim of unjust abuse
Would be the one to carry the pain
In search of the strength to break loose.

I cannot help but wonder
If the perpetrator of such a crime
Ever thinks of the pain deep seeded
Into the depths of another’s mind.

I wonder when they close their eyes,
Can they see a Child’s face?
Do they even have a faded memory
They wish they could erase?

Did time allow them freedom from guilt?
Were they afflicted with the burden of shame?
Were they able somehow to justify
Never feeling a moments blame?

Must I carry this cross forever:
Shadows of another’s transgressions?
Will there come a time in my life
I no longer feel so over burdened?

They say that time heals all things
No matter how small or great.
I humbly ask of you Father of Time
How much longer must I wait?

Submitted for the June 2001 IWVPA Club Theme Project, “Time”