Behind the Mask
Elizabeth Shane has written a new poetry book and has kindly contributed the poem Truth Seeker for the LSLCS blog. Elizabeth uses poetry as a way of communicating her lived experience and confronting these difficult topics.
I am actively raising awareness of the impact of child sexual abuse into adulthood through my new poetry book Behind the Mask, using my own unique grasp of emotional, visual and symbolic language to break down barriers around difficult conversations. By sharing my experience, I hope my work offers insight and a deeper understanding into past trauma and how this presents itself in everyday life.”
Elizabeth Shane
Elizabeth’s story and books can be found on her website: www.elizabethshane.com
Truth Seeker
Is your reputation shattered into shards of jagged glass
Because my story taints you by association?
Do you quiver with each stroke of the pen, tap of the keyboard?
Words leap boldly across the page,
It is there for all to see,
Stark and naked.
Truth!
A word that recoils you in horror.
An unknown mystery filled with pus and poison, saturating into your skin like a disease-ridden worm,
Burrowing its way in until there’s no escape,
Does that fill you with fear?
Truth!
A tricky concept for some convinced their narrative to be holier than thou.
Who to believe?
Surely not the loose cannon looking for a captive audience,
Oh no, we must frown on such outward dramatic nonsense,
After all, they’ve been ‘diagnosed’
Imagination’s run wild? Of course! There is no other explanation,
How absurd!
Is it?
Is the reflection too close for comfort?
Are the words too shocking or would you be an outcast amongst the hierarchy of disbelievers,
Indoctrinated into systemic belief, time and time again?
In every generation it continues.
But hear this!
We are not hostage to darkness,
Voices speak louder than conspiring whispers of denial,
Truth will prevail
In this generation and each generation thereafter.
© Written by Elizabeth Shane (From Behind the Mask)