Her Stolen Innocence



When momma brought me home

I was hungry and I cried...

There was no one there to hug me

I was scared and I would hide...


When I accidentally soiled myself

I was whipped for being bad...

There was no one there to teach me

It was a childhood I never had...


When it was time to go to school

I was teased for being poor...

The other kids would call me names

They said my mother was just a whore...


When her man friends came to visit

They would look me up and down...

My momma would often yell at me

And say she didn’t want me around...


When I would go outside alone

I often walked into the park...

I had to stay there playing by myself

Not going home till after dark...


When older boys would see me coming

They would call me over for a talk...

After they took turns hurting me

I was lucky to barely walk...


When I finally made it home

My momma told me I was no good...

She said I wouldn’t be loved by anyone

Unless I left that neighborhood...


I ran away when I was thirteen

My momma’s love I no longer yearned...

I chose the street life early on

My stolen innocence never to returned...


Even though I felt no hatred

For the momma I never really had...

I ended up living just like her

Unworthy, unloved and sad...


© 2020 Jeffrey Pipes Guice

Photograph: Philip Jones Griffiths

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ruthie the Duck Lady

Image
  Ruth Grace Moulon, known as Ruthie the Duck Lady, was an American woman who was a notable figure in the French Quarter of New Orleans. She was often seen riding from bar to bar on roller skates wearing eccentric furs, drinking Budweiser and smoking Kool cigarettes while accompanied by a couple of ducks. A New Orleans native, she was born Ruth Grace Moulon on Jan. 19, 1934.  As a child, she and her brother raised ducks in their family’s Royal Street apartment. The ducks would follow young Ruthie everywhere, and her family began promoting her as “the Duck Girl” and charging people to take photos with her, as well as selling picture postcards of her image. Ruthie became a French Quarter fixture from the 1950s through the 1990s and was known for her moodiness, either speaking sweetly to passersby or mightily cursing them. She’d hit up friends and strangers for Budweiser beer (“for her duck”) and Kool cigarettes (“for later”). Ruthie became the subject of documentaries and a musi...
Read more

The Ruling Class

Image
It’s going to be alright… Our government is in charge… We have absolutely nothing to worry about… As long as we keep paying the surcharge… They can’t seem to fix the Covid… They can’t stop the opioid addiction… They can’t solve the rising crime rates… They can’t stop their power grab affliction… They can’t stop the black on black murder… They can’t stop the housing shortage… They can’t stop us from losing jobs to China… They won’t pay my rental property mortgage… It’s going to be alright… Our government is in charge… We have absolutely nothing to worry about… As long as we keep paying the surcharge… They can’t seem to stop teenage suicide… But they support the professional sports plantation… They can’t stop the middle class from going into poverty… They seem bent on ruining our once great nation… They ignore that not all Americans get healthcare… They ignore that our children can’t read… They ignore that our farmers can no longer grow crops… They ignore that our senior citizens are liv...
Read more