Detaching | pictured words

To Shed What Light? (sonnet for a darkened past)

She can’t quite grasp event(s) she feels occurred
That may have cast the pattern of her life.
No clear recall – just senses that are blurred,
Yet sharply pierce her present, like a knife.

Hypnosis could enlighten, she was told –
Could bring to forefront what she had suppressed.
Perhaps what had been quelled could then unfold,
And with it, this foreboding put to rest.

And here am I, unable to convey
My hesitance to urge her in this quest –
When everything inside me wants to say
Some incidents might best remain repressed.

Yes, were my past so dark I could not see,
I would not seize the lamp and turn the key.

Photo credit: http://succube.deviantart.com

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She used to speak with longing
Of faraway lands,
Of engaging the charmingly unique folks,
Of getting a first-hand sense of their lives abroad.
“But I don’t speak the language”
Always kept her stateside.

She used to speak effortlessly
Of shores she knew only through books.
Slowly, nearly imperceptibly at first,
She noticed words were not
Readily available.
“What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, yes …”

She began speaking less,
As words needed time to percolate to the surface,
And that took time folks didn’t seem to have.

She eventually quit speaking.
She didn’t know the language.

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