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Through the Eyes of An Abused Child - A Poem About Abuse

Updated on March 16, 2014

My History with Child Abuse and Neglect

Working at a center for children who had an open abuse or neglect case through the local Children and Family Services was one of the most painful and most rewarding jobs I have ever had. This poem reflects the uncertainty that children in these situations face that even adults can't understand—unspoken fears that young eyes and hearts face on a daily basis.

A Child's Eye
A Child's Eye | Source

A Child's Eyes

I used to think a child’s eyes were

Always trusting

Willing to reach out

Willing to touch

To be touched

Wanting to love

And be loved—

Open and innocent.


I used to think a child’s eyes were

Always trusting

Until I met them—

A different breed

Uncommon lives

Filled with violence

With fear

And unpredictable love.


I used to think a child’s eyes were

Always trusting

Until I saw

Looking up at me

Wide fearful eyes

An adult to hold onto—

Yet holding back

Hesitant, unsure.


I never expected a child’s eyes

To not be trusting--

To be pleading,

Haunting and hollow,

Showing an insecure

And ugly world

That begins

Way before adulthood.


I used to think a child’s eyes

Were always trusting.

But a new world every day

That is eerily different

Yet every day the same

Comes back to haunt

Comes back to stay

With the same old refrain:


My Own Eyes Opened as a Social Worker

Each day the same but different…. Each day is the same with the uncertainty, the knowledge that everything is going to bring with it the same chaos, the same abuse, or the same numb neglect. Each day is different, too, in that there is always the human hope that seems to lurk in every one of us, the hope that a new day will bring with it a surprise of something better, even if something small.

As a young social worker out of college, my eyes were opened to a world in which three year olds had more personality and social issues than I had ever encountered in an adult. They had more trust issues than I could have ever dreamed possible. When I “won” one of these precious individuals over and heard that coveted “Miss Bicki” (short for Miss Vicki, of course) and reached out to take that little hand that stretched up to me, I was filled with the most humble and blessed of feelings. The hope that little girl or boy wanted to feel had bubbled up past the fear that held that badgered soul back from adults. Praise God!

The situations that such children as these live in is a cycle, one that is often passed down to them from their parents who also struggled in similar environments. I worked closely with their parents to help them work on breaking the cycle and providing a better home. I helped them find all the resources they could. Sometimes it was enough, and sometimes it wasn’t. I don’t know what happened to all those children and families I worked with nearly twenty years ago. I do know for sure of one incredible success story with one of the little boys whose family I worked with for nearly four years. I trust there are more.

And here is the refrain...


Each day the same but different....


I see…

Eyes that show a wealth of loss

In their world of everyday.

I see…

Eyes that know

Enormous cost

In a world that slips away.


Each day the same but different

In a world that yields no gains;

Each day some hopeful efforts

To help release their pain.


I see…

Eyes that move

In frantic darts

In a world of constant change.

I see…

Eyes that die

In fearful glaze

In a world they can’t arrange.


Each day the same but different

In a world that yields no gains;

Each day new lies are waiting

In a truth that still remains.


Each day the same but different.

working

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