Castletroy Words

 Here's an old favourite.  The Cold Institution. I still recall the harsh, unblinking light, The laughter gone, the corridors made bare; The endless ends when help was out of sight, The bowed-down heads that learned to breathe in fear. I entered full of hope, alive with flame, And crossed those doors in trust, intact, and whole; Too soon the ache, the terror, dulling shame Crept fast, yet could not fully take my soul. I’ve faced far worse than ignorant men like these, Yet scars remain where cruelty held sway; I fled, still marked, but claimed my right to breathe, Escaped the cold, punitive display. Their voices blamed me — don’t survivors know That wounds may heal while injustice stays? Still I will stand, remember, watch it go, This brittle rule, this barren, joyless maze. For kinder things will rise to take its place; I’ll claim the aim I carried through that door. Their arrogance will fail, their power waste, While I endure — and stand, and am, and more. Dedicated to the su...

  Two years. Two years you have stood beside me through thick and thin— through tears, through rage, through despair, through rain and cold. You were constant. When I had nowhere to go, you opened your doors. When he left me with nothing but the street beneath my feet, you gave me shelter. And so many days I sat in your light and presence— resting, dreaming, praying, wishing, hoping for better. So many days I came to you carrying what he had done to me. I cried beneath your roof. I sat in silence. I tried to gather myself piece by piece. And you saw me. You saw me in all my weathers— in the rain and the cold, in the fury and the fear, in despair, in hope, in all the broken states a person can be. You were there. For two years, you were part of my life. And I will miss you. I will miss the familiar light, the quiet, the shelter, the people who gathered around you. I will miss the feeling of having somewhere to go. But there comes a time when even a sanctuary can no longer be home. B...