After…

Note: A poetic meditation and prayer arising from my depths following the trial, conviction, and sentencing for criminal sexual conduct of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician and, in these capacities, a many years’ long serial molester of girls and young woman.

In the roiling wake of violations of self, of soul –
be it of one’s own or of another,
whether known or stranger –
breaching that alway-fragile barrier
between sense and shame,
there comes a turbulent wave of outrage
that calls, that roars for the justice of punishment for all who bear blame…

Yes, for the perpetrator,
yet for perpetrators, too
(whether coconspirators knowing or irresponsibly blind),
for none
alone
can commit acts of ill
will.

Still, I believe there is a greater justice
for ev’ry victim – that catharsis
(which, more than the wholly-righteous outpouring
of long afore suffering
emotion,
is)
that hungering, healing emancipation
from the hideous fetters of nightmarish memories that bind their spirits
to trek the arduous hill of shattered present
and shadowy ‘morrow.

Daily, I pray for their lives to be illumined with Light.