Family and Friends Forum

After the knock

It all changes

Not through your doing

But the consequences are yours to share

The trauma is yours to hold

The secret is yours to keep

This is the price of loyalty

And love

Anxiety seeps through you

With every knock

Whilst trying to understand

Why

Trying to fathom

Why

Disgust and confusion

Whilst loving them unconditionally

The conflict

How can these two things co exist

The instinct to protect

You hold them

Whilst no one holds you

You bury it all

To keep them here

Living turns into surviving

And you begin to question

How to keep going

If-

You can keep going

If-

You can stop yourself from drowning

Isolation forces you further under

The shame is overbearing

The nausea is constant

You become a shell of who you once were

Before the knock

Days turn into weeks

And weeks to months

Months to years

Your new normal is waiting

For the end

One way or another

The end

Until then

We’re the women that bear the brunt