There came a day
When a certain voice
Couldn’t reach her.
It wrapped around her,
But couldn’t tighten;
She wouldn’t let it.
It fell in loose circles around her feet.
And even though they weren’t squeezing her tightly, anymore
She still couldn’t step out of them.
The judgment was making her sick.

She would stand and listen and her eyes would bulge.
She wondered if her angst could show.
She couldn’t stand that voice.

It was relentless:
It would peck at her ears,
It would gnaw on her heart;
She put up crude boards to protect herself.

The voice would drone on about things.
About her wrongs,
Always finding a way.
To insult her.

No matter what she’d done.
No matter what she’d done.

There came a time when she was angry.
She wanted.
To be left alone.

She faced that voice and told it silently
That it was wrong,
That she was angry,
And that she would have it
No more.
She told that voice
That it was not the voice of her Mother.
Her kind and caring Mother.