I wrote this poem because I was feeling a lot of fear and needed to address what Fear feels like. My foster mother used to put me in the cellar at the tender age of 4 because I was bad. I lived with terrorists as I see it.

Hello Fear

Hello Fear, I know your name well
Ive lived in your shadow
Ive lived in your hell

Youre a burden to bear
A thorn in my side
Every time I feel you
Want to run away and hide

This time Im not running
Will stare you in the face
With courage, with strength
With Dignity and Grace

Youre evil, I know it
And this is what Ill say
Listen to me Fear,
I will not run away

There is a story to tell
At the tender age of four
Remembering you Fear
When she closed the door

The cellar was dark,
Sitting on the step
You were there,
the tears that I wept

I was only 4
a bad little girl
You entered my soul
You were my world

The day that he touched me
Again, you entered in
I lived in his shame,
I lived in his sin

I had no place to go
A four year old child
My spirit was broken
My body defiled

You were there
With each and every loss
Giving my body
At such a high cost

You were there
each and every day
Alone in the dark
There I would lay

Waiting to hear footsteps
As you came down the hall
There was no one to help
There was no one to call


You are still there
Why cant I let you go
What will await me
Of this I do not know

But the day will come, and you
Fear will flee
Never to enter ,
Only then I will be free

Youre a burden I bear
But the truth will be told
The hurt in my heart
The emptiness in my soul

So Fear, I am coming to
Look you in the eye
No longer a victim, I will soar on high
Jeanette October 2006