Power

Power
Over infant me
Power to scare,
Power to tame
With screams and cries
And slaps that chastise
Making me the perfect
Obedient child, fucked
Up enough that I fell under the
Power
To demean, to despise
With seething rage and lies
Day after day
Chipping away
At my self-confidence
I didn't stand a chance
Of getting out of it unscathed
You made me feel crazed
By twisting my life,
Making me out to be a bad wife
But little by little
I got rid of the shackles
That bound me to you.
Looking at others, my confidence grew
That life didn't have to be that way
That it could be joyful and gay
If only one was treated with love
Instead of being constantly shoved
To the ground
Relentlessly downed.
I realised I could stand
I started to understand
The games you'd been playing,
My will again and again slaying,
Trying to smother me, my mind to exhaust
Until my self I nearly lost.
Away from your influence,
Once again, I learnt to dance
To my own beat
I regained strength, saw life was sweet
And having been abused many years
And shed rivers of tears
I finally learnt to love again
Myself, others, and to regain
My own
Power
***
Today's prompt was Power, over, but also with and within.
I really would have loved to create a palindrome, but again, that's not where words led me, and I don't have much time to spend today (been on the phone, trying to deal with a suicidal teen (not mine) and their mother... yes, that took precedence over my poem).
Hope you enjoy it nonetheless.