… by Bukola Adewuyi
It’s easy to call an angry father mad,
When you haven’t seen nearly half of what he has:
The sight of punches being thrown at his young mother.
By his own father.
It’s easy to call a withdrawn child dull,
When you haven’t heard nearly half of what he’s heard:
Hurtful pronouncements of not being good enough
By those, he holds so dear.
It’s easy to call a fearful person weak,
When you haven’t experienced nearly half of what they have:
The death of a loved one in a road accident,
Or that of a child in a fire.
It’s easy to point accusing fingers at a harlot,
When you haven’t felt nearly half of what she’s felt:
The hurt of being defiled by a paedophilic uncle,
With no one to tell her tale of shame.
It’s easy to call your overly competitive colleague crazy,
When you don’t know what it means,
To spend all of your formative years,
Being compared to a more appreciated sibling.
It’s easy to label anyone anything,
When you haven’t been the victim of their trauma.
Because you see,
Trauma will school anyone
To be who they’re not.
But the cure, to trauma in all its forms,
Is in your hands.
It’s in your heart.
This cure, is CHRIST.