Inktober/Blogtober crossover: Day 11

Inktober's prompt word for today was "cruel" and it conjured up some memories for me.  I wasn't feeling up to writing in depth about the thoughts it provoked, so I decided to put it into poetry form...

Sticks and stones 
May break my bones,
But your words cut much deeper.
Shadows swallowed the light of a child.
You murdered the present
And warped the future.

Barely a teen,
Yet craving the end;
Did my pain make you happy?
Destroying all I could have been
Came easily to you.
Like some sick little game.

You sat close,
Too close to me.
A voice too sweet for your words,
As you picked all I was apart.
I didn't dare cry.
You wanted me to.

You told me
I should die,
And laughed as you spoke the words.
"Nobody will ever love you,"
And I believed.
I made it true.

I stayed silent,
Face to the glass,
Watching the world pass me by.
I made it too easy for you;
Put up no fight.
Lost who I was.

Older and wiser,
Invisible scars,
I look back on that young girl.
She lives within me, even now.
But she's stronger.
She knows better.

You did not win.
I am still here,
Though your cruelty stripped me bare.
I pieced myself together again,
Learned to love me.
Learned to move on.

It lives in me,
All that you did
To a young girl who did you no harm.
No sticks or stones to break my bones.
Just barbed wire words
I haven't forgotten.