The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Still I Survive 
by Rie Sheridan Rose 

When I was born,

I was mewling flesh

Like other children.

.

Skin stretched over muscle

pinned to bone,

golden curls sprouting

upon my head.

.

But I grew ill,

with a disease that

wasted body and soul.

.

By the time I was ten,

I was not expected to

live till twelve…

Still I survive.

.

My father had wealth

a king might covet,

and no other child.

.

It isn’t hard to guess

what came next.

If doctors had no answer,

then he must look elsewhere.

.

A mechanist boasted

in the neighborhood pub

that he could work miracles.

.

A desperate father is willing

to grasp at steam-powered straws…

and so I became what I am…

and still I survive.

.

Once I was a lovely child,

now I am a broken doll.

The pieces not quite fit together.

.

I hear the whispers,

see the stares,

wish that I could care…

but, at least, still I survive.

.

Fiction © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from Author Rie Sheridan Rose:

Overheard in Hell:
Dark Poetry

Poems exploring hell and damnation. Tales of sorrow, vengeance, betrayal, and redemption. Ghosts, ghouls, and demons stalk these pages. Don’t read in a lonely house…in a darkened room by a single candle…

…unless you like the touch of an icy finger up your spine.

Available on Amazon!