She doesn’t want to remember

All that’s happened

During those awful months

 

Her brain tries to repress

But it’s hard

Their awful words

Her atrocious pedagogy

Stays with her

 

The dreams finally stopped

Of her walking into that place

All of them staring

Hatred oozing omnipresently

Her sister joked of “post-traumatic stress”

She hates dwelling on it

The why would a teacher do that?

The what would cause a teacher to do that?

The who hires a teacher like that?

And why

After everything that’s happened

Is SHE still teaching there?

 

But she’s given up trying

To answer the questions that will

Never be answered

She just wants to forget

Put it behind her

But she can’t

 

It follows her

Everywhere

The hatred still omnipresent

Even now that she’s free

It comes up a lot

In conversations

Without her even realizing it

Those girls were her sisters

And they abandoned her

That woman was her teacher

And SHE broke her

 

All of it

 Affected her

Strengthened her

Sculpted her

Changed her

She’s different now

I guess that’s the trouble with forgetting