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Child Abuse and Neglect
Contact Information

507 North Sullivan Road Suite A-3

Spokane Valley WA 99037-8531 USA

Phone: (509) 922-4849

Fax: (509) 922-5310

Email: childabuseandneglectresearch@hotmail.com

Website: www.childabuseandneglectresearch.org

 

 

Poems

Frost of Spring Green

 

Frost covers the pines

with eloquent gossamer frosting,

crystallizine ambience.

Yet, with this quick-freeze delicate

comes the icy anguish of

beggars on the street

and homeless people,

youth discarded, absent mothers,

fleeing fathers unable to face the

reality of the day,

foster systems overcrowded,

home-finders stressed and calling.

Around town snowflakes flutter

asking if anyone has an extra bed.

Flurries blast and crystals

form to capture prisms.

Jeweled tones reflect the

new waves of

pristine snowfall,

hiding the weeds upright

from showing their non-white souls.

Blankets of frozen, whitewashed cotton

hide the frenzied blackness of the city’s

spirit, as the meth kitchens cook

their soup, make their buzz, while

tear-filled babies’ eyes cry with

total wonder, and the crank

junkies stew more highs.

Snowflakes float again

as a lactescent blanket,

an unnoticed patchwork of

stumbling stories,

abandoned adolescents,

and pillowless street people,

calico children with no beds.

Butterflies heed the warning

of the green grass of spring

 

by Karen Jean Matsko Hood .Copyright©2004 

Published in Frost of Spring Green published by Whispering Pine Press, Inc.

Copyright©2004 Used with permission.

 

Greening of Walls

             

Outside….the city is green,

from blades of grass, while

floral artists ornament the landscape,

yellow with daffodil blooms

and alabaster with fragrant paper-

narcissus.  Cherry buds

unfold on the tree and swell

succulent with nectar

as birch bark peels and flutters

in brisk spring breezes.

Lemon-toned warblers sing

angelic music, to await monarch butterflies of

mosaic patches in the pigment

lush of the gentle wind.

            . . . . . .

Inside….stark white walls freshly

painted line the stairs to crowded

rooms next to each other

with doorways stacked, like

rungs in a ladder that lay down,

as a gateway to the monochromatic maze.

The doorbell chimes and the door

opens to allow the child visitor

to enter. They sit and chat

with sunken eyes and solemn

faces. One hour they talk

in stoic language without

words. Somber exchange

of glances, adult and child.

            . . . . . .

In between….the therapist records

the trauma, the nightmares, the

physical abuse. Inside, the child

halfway recounts the horrors,

then runs through bleached-white

corridors to cry in the

colorific landscape, and the rain

washes the lurid spectacle

in torrents.

Until there

are no more

tears.  Only

stained

soulless

hollows.

  

by Karen Jean Matsko Hood .Copyright©2004 

Published in Frost of Spring Green published by Whispering Pine Press, Inc.

 Copyright©2004 Used with permission.

Updated Thursday, 02 December 2004


Child Abuse and Neglect Research

Child Abuse and Neglect Research

507 North Sullivan Road Suite A-3

Spokane Valley WA 99037-8531 USA

Phone: (509) 922-4849 | Fax: (509) 922-5310

Email: childabuseandneglectresearch@hotmail.com

Website: www.childabuseandneglectresearch.org
 

Updated Thursday, 30 November 2006