Flashback, another poem by me

Like a doctored snapshot
the mind seeks correction,
reliving another’s rough
touch, a slap on the face,
a punch in the mouth,
flight into the potted plants
on the floor and being kicked
in the side or perhaps
something deeper, a penetration
which splayed you open
like a bass as your perpetrator
leered at your exposed glaze of skin.

You flash back in sleep
and it awakens you –
a spark of terror in
a midnight fire that
throws no heat and
leaves you shivering.
No redemption in this –
only the soul’s trembling
attempt to make light
in the darkness like
a bulb flickering
then going out.

In the morning,
another flash. This time
insight. Chickadees sing
outside your window.
Crocuses poke at the earth
and fear retreats as you
rewind the film
and sock it away.
You hold yourself shaking
like a mother holds a child
after a warm bath.
You rock yourself,
swaddled in daylight.