Quiet steps on cracked stone
The youngest cautiously entered
Believing she could be saved
Goodness abandoned her
She had careful steps
Evading the darkness
Kindness deserted her
She refused to let go
Engulfed in shadows
The eldest trudged behind
She surrendered years ago
Heavy, gutted soul
Her steps dragged in
Desiring damnation
Rugged, broken heart
Drowning in grief
Repining remedy
She collapsed into rock
Generational wounds
Yearning for release
Her sister knelt beside her
Pleading for forgiveness
Praying to an unseeable god
He too had forsaken them
Begging for deliverance
Two souls of the same body
Left to mend their brokenness
One hopeful, the other ashamed
Two souls of the same affliction
Bound by blood, bound by pain
Attempting to correct family sins
Not knowing if its too late.
Ashley Collins (she/her) is a MFA Writing student at the School of Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Her work primarily focuses on giving voice back to the Black women who have had their stories consistently erased. Much of her previous work has been fiction prose writing within the fantasy genre as well as realistic fiction dealing with instances of trauma. Within the past year she has been focusing on writing poetry and using her poems to express fantasy imagery, her own life experiences as well as the experiences of Black women that do not get much attention.
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