In the following short poem, Anne Pitcher writes about tough times during her childhood, and the people who helped her get through it.

-- Tim Machesney

A DIFFICULT UPBRINGING

by Anne Pitcher

The brain stopped absorbing
Many years ago
A vocabulary very limited
And her Poetry portrays it so

A repetition of words
Most commonly used
And, if, but and to

A child trapped way back in time
A starved brain that needs feeding
Frustration a sign!

Trouble in school
And trouble at home
Everywhere she turned
Adults moaned!

Emotions withheld
And secrets locked away
Scared stiff
Of what her father might say

Repressed the child
In life's short measure
Could she otherwise
Have been born clever?

Like an outsider
In the educational world
It wasn't her fault
Unhappiness was hurled

Taken away to places new
A boarding school needed
In Social Services' view

Torn away from her mother
She loved
At night, she yearned
For that special hug

Happy the days off boarding school
She remembers instant whip fights
Though she got punished, those occasions
Were filled with delight

Death of both parents in 1982
Gratefully the staff at the school
Helped her get through!

Ms. Pitcher writes from Britain.