Best Wishes Poem by Patti Masterman

I never saw your wedding photos
Never saw until yesterday, the faded pictures
I never saw that shocked look of resignation-
Unhappiness, boldy staring from your trapped eyes
The realization of just where life had placed you:
At the center of a circle
Of disappointed relatives: your new family
Blaming your presence and your motives
You who came to them behind a babies cries
And the one most of all, who should have been
Protector of you: he threw the first stone
Behind closed doors,
Stone you never saw nor knew of,
Stone that sunk you to the bottom
And insured that all those smug, smiling faces
Would never really know or understand you.
Perhaps you took out all your pain and vengeance
On anyone who came within striking distance-
That was your prerogative
But, with only a few glimpses of your true soul
(You always keep it so well hidden,
And it really is beautiful)
Here's hoping that maybe someday
You will feel safe enough
To finally allow it some freedom.