Mother works has no time for her
Brother screams and bullies torture
A villain befriends
Innocence is lost

Where is father?

She cries for herself
For no one else will

And in her tiny mind reigns suffering
But in her soul hope lingers
Hanging by a thread

Quiet and still she endures it all
Resentment drops its seed
and blooms

The pain she feels destroys her soul, her spirit
Her hopes and dreams
Only for a moment
From the dirt she rises,
To touch the stars
Resentment withers
and in its place love and forgiveness are planted

And in the mirror she does not see the
Ugliness they had made her out to be

But instead the beauty that
They were too blind to see.

May 8, 2003

Amy Lopez is a student at Santa Monica College and is President of the Future Educators Club/SCTA.