Waiting

by Cheryl Merrick

Seeing you huddling

    behind your wall,

I toss over notes of love,

offering you the love 

    you were unable to give to me;

Til, sorrowfully,

I must finally accept

that you are unable to feel my heart;

to either give or receive love.

Letting Go

by Cheryl Merrick

The time has come
for letting go
of hopes, dreams,
and yearnings
for a relationship
which can not be
in this life.

The time has come
for letting go 
of old lingering hurts,
for ending the manipulation,
and for ceasing to enable 
another to demean me.

Twisted Legacy

by Cheryl Merrick

Lacking a sense of self,
the child-mothers
cling to their daughters.

Frightened by a world
they have no skills
to cope with,
like drowning persons,
they frantically claw their way
up the souls of their daughters.