Shroud

Shroud

A soul who won’t be missed
is all you are to me,
a wretched thief who stole my childhood.

Your forced intimacy ripped away
the happiness of my youth,
leaving wreckage of guilt and shame.

You were a dark and ominous fog
engulfing me,
enshrouding my whole world.

Only years of struggle and
determination would rid me
of that funeral dirge.

You owe me for a life of darkness,
but how do you give back a life
that wasn’t yours to take?

Now, after all these years
of loneliness and pain,
you're merely a bad memory.

I am done with you.
I no longer expect you to
find the courage to tell the truth.

Pat Nelson