Broken Love

Sitting quietly on the steps

I seem normal to the world, but inside I’m torn

Lacking attachment to my love ones by whom I was born

I cling to the hope that someday..maybe someday

I will feel what it means to be whole.

These are the words of a ten year old boy

suppressed by medications who acts out with acts of hatred

because that’s all he knows.

As he stares in the mirror tears drop to the floor

and he births a new version of himself

to disguise the lonely ten year old boy filled with fear.

The only love he knows torn from his soul and he cries on the inside,

seemingly, the end is near. He’s lost all control

so he takes it out on those who try to help him

and in the midst of the pressure they lose track of the fact

that he’s still a ten year old boy filled with fear

needing nothing more than the comfort of a loved one

who doesn’t change how they treat him because of fear.

Now is the time to evade these presumptive perceptions of who a foster kid is.

Broken? No.

In need of guidance to find how he is whole.

We stand by his side and uphold these values praying that someday

they will bond with his soul.

And though it seems to have lost it, we never had control

as we pour our love into a child that yearns for more.

The years pass by and we realize…

The hardest thing to do is let go.

- Travis

Ames	Eldora State Training School
Burlington	Fort Dodge
Cedar Rapids	Marshalltown
Council Bluffs	Mason City
Davenport	Ottumwa
Des Moines/Mobile	Sioux City
Dubuque	Waterloo