Scars

     A teacher in a first aid class asked her students to raise their hands and give her a definition of a scar. Several students responded and their replies included everything from ‘big gashes that heal crooked’, ‘nasty places that are ugly’, ‘like when you get burned, it stops oozing but leaves a big hideous scar’ ‘those horrible marks that don’t go away when you have a baby’ and ‘you know a place where you were cut, shot, scraped, burnt or something and its really gross because everyone can see it’.

     The teacher noticed a young girl in the back seemingly intrigued by all of the answers and ask her if she had a response. She said she had a response and began, “a scar is a permanent mark left on you but all scars are not visible to the naked eye. I’m not talking about the ones we cover with our clothes either. I am talking about the ugliest scars of all and the fact they are usually the ones that nobody else ever sees.”

     Her statement piqued the curiosity of several of her classmates and the teacher asked her to explain further. Once more the student began. “The scars I am talking about are the ones left when people make fun of you. Like if you are really overweight and you’re walking down the hall and you hear the remarks ‘she’s such a cow’, ‘she’s as big as a hippopotamus’ or ‘what did she do eat the cafeteria out?’  Of course there are the ones for the kids whose parents have no dental insurance and their front teeth protrude a little being called ‘beaver’, ‘bucktooth’ and squirrelly’. But that’s not all. Scars are left by parents who ignore their children and never pay any attention to them, they are also left by parents who say things like ‘you’re too damned stupid to be my kid’, ‘Jesus must have hit you with an ugly stick before he sent you here’, and the parents that beat you until you can barely breathe, or they lock you in closets all alone in the dark, or shut you up in cellars and basements with rats and snakes, or the worst ones of all. The ones that touch you in places where they shouldn’t and threaten to kill you or somebody else you love if you ever tell. Those are the scars that nobody sees and those are the scars that will never heal.

     When the girl was finished speaking tears were rolling down her cheeks as well as her teachers and some of her classmates. She dismissed class early that day and told the girl who gave the thought provoking talk to let her know if she ever needed anything. The girl nodded and left along with her other classmates.

     The next day the girl never showed up for school. There was talk throughout the classroom as to maybe she was embarrassed or could she be ill. She never came back to school the rest of the week. The weekend came and went and still she did not return to class. The teacher went to her record book to get information on the girl because she did not recognize her. School had only been in session for three weeks and she was just now becoming familiar with her class. She had nobody assigned to that particular seat. That afternoon she stopped each of the kids at the door and nobody had any idea who the young girl was. However, the teacher found out that because of the girls responses to the scar question seven students were either living with other family members, had families going to counseling and one father had been arrested after the student told her mother how he had been sexually molesting her and her three sisters.

 WATER  PROMPT

It is summer and the warm liquid runs over my face

Like when I was a child

Full of Innocence and youth

Curious and wild, yet respectful and mild

The spring rain was cool

Soothing, like the sea

Crisp like the ocean

Bringing flowers and laughter to me

Irrepressible thirst brought drinking

Clear, bottled H2O

Hydrogen and Oxygen

Savor the quench, long and slow

On the hot, pretty days

Washing the car in a creek

I’d splash in the water

Until I was weak

I could jump in a puddle

Decorate my shoes

Call it the spotted look

Something crazy and new

Stand under the waterfalls

And let it stream

From my head to my toes

Like a paradise dream

Unlike when its stagnant

After the flood

Filth strewn about

Everything covered in mud

Buckets and buckets

of water and bleach

This iridescent crystal

cleans up the streets

An amazing necessity

Water is great

Filtered and pure

Ranking first rate