Once Home
May 18, 2020
Note: Daphney wrote this poem to submit to the 2020 Fighting Words Poetry Contest hosted by the Pulitzer Center. The poem is a response to the article “We Are All We Have’: Nome Sexual Assault Victims Find Their Collective Strength”.
Once Home
By Daphney Ramirez
Clouds among a field of roses
Carefree children running among the unknown
Something sweet, neat and clean
Tainted by those who were supposed to protect me, protect us
“Police didn’t even respond to their calls for help.”
Pleasing to others like the surface of the sea, until you reached too deep
Seeing through rose colored glasses to hide the muck once called home
I don’t want to go, but where can I go
All its the same whenever I go, the whispers, the looks, the pain
Yet we are the ones to blame
“Police seemed to blame those who suffered violence.”
Where is home
When will it come, when will the bad go
When will I call it Home
How long for the sea to keep crashing against the rocks
When will peace come into mind
When will roses be roses
People be people
Love will be Love
Hope be Hope
When will happiness be seen as looking at home, soft, sweet, warm and gentle
When will this nightmare end and the dream begin
There is a hand that holds out, I’m not alone
“That took a while for us to really see that wasn’t going to go any further,” said Ellanna. “And that’s when we decided then to go public.”
Hope stuck us all, in me, in she, in him and he, in all who were in pain
Closing my eyes, the pain still lingers
But these people who stayed, who fought, who screamed and shouted when we couldn’t
They are my sanctuary
They are my home