A Mother Lost

No one saw you...
laying there...
moving in and out of particles
of light...shimmering.

But I did.
and I think...
I felt you...
long before I saw you.

Like an echo in a dream
your faint whispers lead me
to this place...between worlds

On 2nd and Market St
where the streets are ancient,still
thick and cobbled

You lead me to this place...
where the old auction blocks
used to stand....
In my dreams you told me your
husband and children were sold here.
How I cried for you....

You made me feel your loss so profoundly
that I woke with my pillow soaked...
Mourning for you.....

I knew...exactly where I'd find you.

Bearno's Pizza now stands in that dreaded place
As I walk in I am greeted with smiles...yet
I find it hard to breathe...because you are pulling
me to a certain place inside...

I look around and decide that
I want to be seated
in the lower level....where the entertainment
and the clairvoyant reader are...

I am approaching you....and I know it
because a sadness like nothing I have ever felt
takes over me....and I am crying....again.

The reader takes one look at me and says....
"AAH ....you have lost someone dear and close to you
a child perhaps?"
All I can do is nod because she isn't reading me
She is feeling you.

I just walk away and go further into the interior of this
quaint cellar...you are pulling me closer

The area where I find you is closed off,apparently
For repairs.....water damage.
I faintly recall someone saying.
Your whimpers are becoming more audible to me
your pain is becoming ....unbearable to me.

There...in the far left corner of the cellar
I find you...shimmering in and out like dust
caught in particles of light...
I see you...with chain marks around your ankles

I see you with blood dried across your face where
someone hit you....

I see you in your white cotton dress with long sleeves
all torn and dirtied ripped in the back by whip marks
that have left welts on you that now resemble
a cherry tree....

You see me....and reach for me
but you are not solid...
only a transparent memory of pain
replaying over and over again.
I feel you...inside me....shimmering
Like a bowl of jello ....asking the same
question over and over again

Why
Why
Why

Why have they done this to you
Why have they taken your family away
Why have they left you here.....alone.

I have no answers for you,and all I can do
is wrap my arms around myself as I sit on the ground
to comfort both of us....

Someone saw me and asked me what I was doing
yet I could not answer....
they thought I was hurt because of the torrent of tears
pouring down my face...
All I could say was I lost someone....
As I got up....feeling heavy with sadness
For you...and so many others who lost
there families  
At the Auction Blocks....
In Kentucky.