poem by:Ashleigh Gaffney don't forget the tissue

For every child
For every child who cries at night
Alone with shame in pain and fright

For every child who wants so much
To only feel a gentle touch

For the beaten child, who cries in pain
Whose tears run silent, like the rain

For the child used to satisfy lust
Who never learns to love or trust

For the child taken from her home
And made to feel so all alone

For the child whose home is just a shell
Where life becomes a living hell

For the child who smiles but cannot feel
Because of scars too deep to heal

For every child who yearns for love
I hope and pray to God above

To hear your cries and heal your pain
And give you back your life again

Look back on a
time and place

Seeing a child's innocent face
Knowing that things
aren't as they appear

For inside she cries
silent tears

Deep inside she is
filled with pain

She feels dirty and
full of shame

Innocence lost at a
very young age

Locked this child in
a pain filled cage

There is no freedom
or escape

From the fact this
child was raped

While the guilty man
is roaming free



This child is
sentenced to eternity

Eternity locked away
with all this shame

She can't help but feel
that she was to blame

Even though common
sense says it was not her
fault

She can't seem to help
from having these
thoughts

What ifs' keep running
through her mind

She keeps going back to
those moments in time

If there isn't something
different she could have
done

Why didn't she scream or
at least try to run

Fear kept her frozen to
the spot
While the grown man
did what he should
have not

Shame and fear made
her keep the silence

Kept her from telling anyone
about the violence

The thing that is
shocking beyond belief

Is this child could
not get any relief

The same thing
happened again and
again

The first one was just
how it began

More than one man did
his worst

None of them caring
about the child they hurt
After the first time it was
easy to tell
Was it her pain and
shame they could smell?

With every touch
a part of her died

Now she is in a
prison that has no
gate

Every one of them
sealing her fate

Lord can you hear the
silent cries

Of a soul that's been
abused?

Do you see the
bleeding wound

Of one that's battered
and bruised?

Do you see the
wounded spirit

Broken by
someone's lust?

Now finding it hard
to function at all

Bearing scars of
broken trust

Do you see the child
that faces

Ridicule and hurtful
words?

Being told they're
useless and unworthy

Is all that some have
heard

Often all these things
that happen

Lie buried deep
inside

Where nobody hears
the silent crying

Nor sees the pain
they hide

And through tears
the questions 'Why'

And where was God
in the midst of this?
Did He hear my cry?

And why Lord did
you not respond

And stop the evil
done?

Did your heart
break in two

Like it must have
for your son?

I guess we may
never know

Why we go through
so much pain

All we can be really
sure of the Lord
Is your love
remains the same

I'm sure it must
have hurt you Lord

To see your child
suffer

And to see them still
dealing with

The inflicted sin of
another

Lord I pray they'd
be released

And wholeness be
restored

And that they'll
know fullness of life

That comes from
you O Lord