By-Stander Poem by Steffi Webster

Regrets eating into my heart – thinking.
Into my mind my worries are gently sinking.
I open my eyes, all I see is night.
It's as if my emotion has closed off all light.
As I ponder my choice her mournful face is here,
Eyes wide open with panic, horror and fear,
Her tormentor looms above me in a flash,
Tongue lashing, calling her 'slag' and 'trash'.
I had fled as the usual hate did start,
I feel longing growing in my heart.
My silence is punctured by whispered threats
I weep and mutter 'so much for regrets'.
If I had stood up, fate she could avoid
could have escaped her being destroyed.
The longing grows and the pain intenses.
I remember her losing all her defences.
That’s it, enough, I can't take any more
I finally run out of the kitchen door,
the moon glares down with accusing eye.
In my mind I hear her desperate cry,
the rain softly caresses my hair
Like the tears she once wept, it isn't fair.
I round the corner and there graves loom,
Words spelling out the inhabitants doom.
I cross to the newest, full of dread
I can’t believe she’s really dead.
Shrouded in veils of fragrant petals
her final resting place where she settles
finally freed of her raging fear
why she did it is perfectly clear.
The thought of a kitchen knife hits me hard
as I stand in the cold, moonlit graveyard.
Now she will never dread her waking,
I can’t stop myself from shaking.
I wonder if I had not walked away,
would she still be here today?