Peta,
This is a sad poem, but based on reality, which makes it very powerful to the reader. I think you expressed yourself well here. Inside us is that child, still hurting, still scared. Though we are adults now, it is still as if the child lives on insided!

I only have one suggestion for you, take it or leave it!

"The female woman" How abuot changing from "female woman" to grown woman, or adult woman, mature woman...just to give it a bit more dramatic feel.
But, this is only my opinion, ok? If you leave it as you wrote it, the poem will still be excellent!

All my love, Dara

Peta Thank you so much for posting your story in such a powerful and meaningful way I like how you say you are  still dealing with this but it is necessary to post i can't remember your exact wording but I think the meaning is the same by posting this you are taking a step in the good ole healing process and for many of us this is a big step speaking out in poetry! I was drawn in by your title and was drawn in more by your story this is very sad but I am glad you posted it you may never know how many people you help just by doing what you may think is small is huge to someone who is going through this simular ordeal. You just saved a life and touched many hearts and souls in the process you have so much courage and strength within you that helps you to shine! You say this in in ht epast but for us survivors of abuse things like this never get far enough in our memories to become just that something in our past. They are and always will be painful memories. Noone can just toss the abuse we endure like a tumbleweed in the wind though it feels so much better to say well it's in the past it helps us to move on and the event seems to get futher away but it is still very much real! I say this not to discourage because there is nothing discouraging about people of abuse as I think these people harbor so much strength to endure so much heart ache and pain and especially when the abuse hits so close to our heart to be a loved family member or anyone close enough to have access to our hearts! but the sad reality is we never can entirely get over these events as there are painful scarring that will remain everytime an event triggers a memory in our past. I am sorry to discourage anyone but I know this first hand i was abused verbally physically (only a few times) I still say that but once is to many times and it never seems to make it ok but it still helps to ease the fact that it could have been worse. I was sexually assualted mentally abused by so many people in my life. and I know many many people go through this everyday but does that make what happened any more right for a person to do what they did! I had a flashback of a situation with me and my ex boyfriend which have been broken up for almost a year but I still play like little movie clips through my head everytime me and my fiancee argue i have to remind myself this is not about me and my ex this is just a petty argument. He is not like my ex. He just said something because he was angry we have to keep reinforcing ourselves to keep being positive my therapists always tell me this! I have a poem simuliar to the one Peta wrote about an event in my life that I can see myself now more clear than ever I think that is true about alot of things in my life I can see much clearer now that I am on  the outside looking in and what I see scares me sometimes! Peta you are very brave and courageous young woman I enjoyed reading your poem and I appreciate you speaking out! Thank you.
                                                     Love me and I luv you,
                                                          Chrissy

oh one more thought I feel we as people have segmented hearts.... ??? strange I know but our heeart seem to be pieces of who we are here we have a piece that represents that little girl inside us that never stops crying or has fear. Then there is the girl inside us who tries to be strong not to cave and then there is the girl inside us that is a mixture of all these emotion sad happy and everything in between but sometimes we have to each each individual "little girl" to get the full      picture of it all I have so many little girls in me somedays she a vision of one pops out and this is who I see all day long this is the feelings and vibes I live with until I fall asleep that nite and another character from our past pops out and it is like a cycle we live with why because we were hurt! Does this make any sense or am I totally losing my mind.
                                                            Hugs
                                                           Chrissy

I was a child always deep down and I think deep down where it matters most I always will be a child learning to live or a "freak" learning to live in their world a world so unlike the one I wish I could live in.