There is a Story Written
on My Daughter’s Body
By Theodore Richards
There is a story
Written on my daughter’s body
In languages I don’t speak
Ancient hieroglyphics
Cave paintings on womb walls
Chiseled lines
Like a prisoner counting the days ‘til release
Words cut deep
Like ancient ravines, eroded by time
Like the banks of the Nile
Worn away by tears
Recent dramas & ancient traumas
Memories & dreams etched in blood:
birth blood
menstrual blood
Blood shed by the ancestors
There is a story
Written on my daughter’s body
That I can never understand
Written in a script I can’t decipher –
Even though it is my story, too.
Recent dramas & ancient traumas
Words cut deep
Like an unfathomable chasm
Window to the abyss
The depths of the earth & her pain
Memories cut deep
Like trauma-infused-DNA.
Like scars
This story will never be deciphered or healed
But – like scars – it will give healing
Even when the blood has dried.
![](https://reimaginingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/t_richards_image_2021.jpg)
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