Ode to Me

This place setting by Barb Jenkins is part of an exhibit, ‘Empty Place at the Table’ honoring victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. 12 place settings were displayed at the State Capitol in Helena, Montana during April 2021

A little girl just eight years old

Obedient and quiet, did as she was told 

Heart beating so rapidly with fear

Nobody there to wipe her tears

Everyday at some point in time

He’d come to her to make him feel fine

It didn’t matter the time of day

No matter what, she had no say

People would come and people would go

A “good daddy”, he was just for show

I wondered if they knew me well

Could they see my cage, my private hell

I’d dream of ways to make it end

And him to prison they would send

I’d wish with all my heart he was dead

But then that’s wrong, or so I read

Three years of horror and pain

I’d never be the same again

Forever altered, I was ashamed

I hated the sound of my own name

Living with knowledge beyond my years

Crying inside these invisible tears

Years and years of trying to shed

The memory of what happened in my bed

I look back now on that sweet little girl

And when I do, I see a pearl

One who survived a storm of sand

And turned her life into something grand

So, look and listen to the little ones

Whose hearts are darkened by the sun

Look in their eyes and see their souls

Help them heal so that they’ll be whole

— Barb Jenkins, Author – Burying Jane Doe