A Child's Tale

[Fire Monkey]

I wanted to preface this by saying that this story was told to me unexpectedly without any prompting by a young preschool age child. Her mother had been abused but the child had not and many might think that the child was too young to have been effected much by the things that had happened. I took her story and wrote it in a poem leaving it as much as possible in the child's own words - decide for yourself if this child was "mostly unaffected" by what happened between her parents.

A Child's Tale

I met a Fairy Princess who flew around the world,
she said she used to be a bird and then a little girl.
She lived her life in a forest dark; at least that's what she said,
and angry sounds of beasts at night would drive her from her bed.
So then her magic pony would fly her to the moon
where she could sleep in safety, but morning came too soon.

She said her mother had a knife she carried everywhere
to stab the bears and tigers that might harm the Princess fair.
But Mommy could not use the knife to stab the Daddy Bird,
so one day he bit the Princess, or this is what I heard.
All her blood fell out of her and down onto the ground,
her little voice leaked all away and it could not be found.

The doctor came and took a look and placed a band-aid on
then put her blood back into her but her little voice was gone.
And so - she told me with a smile that seemed so out of place -
now she talks with a grown-up voice - a tear rolled down my face -
I quickly wiped it with my hand and asked her how she was
"Don't be silly, that's not real, don't you know? Because,
Things like that can't happen, I was talking about a bird,"
She paused a moment, looked away and then these words I heard:

"I'm just telling you a story, now I think I want to play.
Besides, Daddy couldn't do that. The police took him away."
I nodded and I said, "I know." though I could hardly speak
as I turned away to hide the tears now streaming down my cheek.

In fantasy and fairytales you'll find that children speak
of truth that cuts so deep that it will leave you feeling weak.
In images that can't be real are said the truest thought,
just listen to the voice of children and you will learn a lot.

Copyright March 12, 2014 by Timothy Emil Birch

[SweetSilverBird]

Aw Tim, honey, that was a very hard day. But the child is surrounded by love now, and you have done your very best. Even writing this poem will help get the word out to help other little girls. It's a beautiful poem babe. <3 It's a story that should be told. For the record, I don't usually comment on my sweetie's poetry, because I am likely a little biased, but this is an exception.

[Brigid Briton]

Hi Tim,

This is a great job. So sad. A good mix of fantasy and harsh reality. I was wondering as I read it if Sweet Silver Bird was that little girl, but I gather by her response to your poem that she was not.

I think this is one of your best poems yet. Isn't it amazing what the love of a good woman can do...

[Fire Monkey]

It was a very hard poem to write because as I say in the intro before the poem, the story was told to me by a young child and as much as possible I used her own words in the way she expressed things like saying all her blood fell out onto the ground. I should add that the child was never physically harmed or touched - this was just the way she expressed herself. I felt compelled to write the poem after she had told me her story but I can tell you there were a lot of tears mixed with my typing.

[blackbird]

I have a 6 year old, and a 5 too.....you did a marvelous job of keeping her words. It sounded very much like a little one. I wasn't expecting tears this Friday morning...thanks for that Some years later down the road, you will have to give it back to her as a story belongs to the tellers heart. I would think this will be a piece of the healing for her as I suspect it will "affect" her in some way or another. You are a tender soul aren't you? That's wonderful! She is a lucky girl.

[Fire Monkey]

Yes - I intend to give her the poem when she is older. I was not expecting to be told the story by her, it just came out of nowhere and took me by surprise, though I knew of her situation and what had happened in her life. I guess she just decided I was someone she could talk to about it and so I made a point of listening. I could not imagine doing anything else in the situation. In the same way I could not imagine not preserving it for her because when she is older I think it will be important. As you say, it is likely to be a part of the healing for her. I hope it might also help others heal from their hurts or understand better that a small child sees and feels far more than many think they do.

[Daniel Mark Extrom]

Wow.  What a powerful poem! And what a sad poem.  I am rooting for her, and all who have suffered as she has.  May she, and they, somehow overcome their pain.  And may her mom get the help she needs too. The world can be ugly and scary, and how sad it was in her own home, which should be a place of refuge.

And it sounds like you were a really good listener when she needed one.   Good for you. 

Sincerely. Dan

[Fire Monkey]

I think that things are looking up for them at this time but the story she told me shows that the damage which is done in such cases is often deeper than people think. I wish there was more that I could have done but sometimes listening is all you can really do.

[John Walton]

I often meet amazing people like that little girl in my job. I say amazing because they see things that nobody should have to see and yet they somehow find the strength to cope. Nice poem. John

[Fire Monkey]

Thank you.

[Cory Raymond]

Hi Fire Monkey,

Please write more poems like this! It's heartbreaking, but people need to be made aware that kids don't just "get over it" or move on. Your tender heart shows through very plainly both here and in your other work. Thank you for this.

Cory

[Fire Monkey]

I hardly ever plan ahead what I might write - but do I write what my heart leads me to whenever it does

If you read through other poems I have posted here in the past you'll find that while there are many light and silly poems there are others which are sad or deep or touching on topics such as this. I do not shy away from the heavy topics because to me, they need to be written, both for my sake as writing gets them out in the open so they don't sit and fester inside and for the sake of others because these things sometimes need to be heard and thought about.