[Issue 2025.72]

‘Raised’, Deborah Harford

Art © 2025 Melkorka

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I wish you had known to stop and take a breath
turn towards yourself
enter the aching inner hall
and sit

I wish you could have seen with eyes
cleared of the visions of others

I wish that you had been raised in a cave
in a forest
with only animals for company

because then
you would have felt
your own beauty

been comforted by the fire of the sun
in your veins

then you might have understood that your sadness
could not be helped
by the crowds around you

worse…
that as long as you struggled among them
on your knees

they would assume

that was your place

© 2025 Deborah Harford

[Issue 2025.72]

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