Naming - The List

NAMING- THE LIST. Name it utter the unspeakable and so, if not closure then what? Catharsis perhaps. Name it as in history’s annals- those terrible lists shudder and cringe at the words. Hiroshima Auschwitz Vietnam 9-11. Then focus on the visible, the palpable, ruins, those skeletal buildings, radiation sickness, crematoria, barbed wire, napalm. fire, death. And remember the phrase: “Bear witness.” and, “Never again.” Then name your own personal list write your own history. As I, tearing away the blanket of denial, of forgetting, of not accepting. As I, shuddered and cringed but bore it and write: prison-ten years, innocent. schizophrenia- my ex-husband’s resulting in: domestic violence- police reports stating. 4 miscarriages- medical reports stating. And I write: not “victim of…” but realize,- “survivor of.”