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Emotion Translated
Speak.
I have birthed from the shyness of my childhood, but as someone transformed.
Anderson’s book
has taken me.
I do not devour books – they devour me.
Shock.
The girl sinks into depression,
she retreats down into her silence.
I am pulled in with her, my feet
Skimming her gray waters unreflecting,
My head immersed in the mist not diffusing.
My heart beats, boom, boom –
I close the book, I cannot continue –
I open the book, I must continue
And then the realization sneaks in and pinches my arm and I find
she was raped.
I cannot know what exactly she felt
In that time of stifled memories and a dam in her throat
Yet empathy is not a mirror of a person’s experiences
Instead, an art of translation.
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In response to reading Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, written some while back. The technique is flawed, but my past self speaks a crucial message.