The soul waits in line for opportunities to re-enter the stage of planet earth...birth. Then the opportunities presented to overcome upheavals and obstacles along life’s journey are like quantum leaps for the soul. The challenge…remember and do not drown within the illusions.

The fall of Eloise

A poetic true story

She was 15 years old, one of 13 children
born into poverty in the mountains of north Georgia
Her family tree cross pollinated
Cherokee and European immigrants
She was innocent to the ways beyond this land
 
Perhaps she held dreams of another life,
a city life of adventure, love, and prosperity
Perhaps she thought she saw its glimpse
in the eyes of the unknown visitor
negotiating with her father
 
A desperate father, with so many mouths to feed
Conversing with a stranger interested in his daughter
Perhaps he sighed relief, as he sold her
to this man from the city
with promises to care for her
and sealed the deal with hard cash
the spirit comes with so many disguises
she so soon would learn
 
The girlish excitement of joy quickly shattered
as she learned her new role in her new life
He kept his promise and cared for her,
giving her shelter and food
However love, that sense of belonging, closeness, connection
did not exist in his heart
She was property and a means of greed
he prostituted her innocent flesh
to anxious men desiring of such supple youth
 
At 18 years old, she was part of the streets 
and because she was too old and no longer fair
He threw her out of his shelter and care,
Perhaps she cried, perhaps she died
to that soft place that once held her heart
 
Her education was the city
all she could do, all that she knew
and it kept her working on the streets
Perhaps she justified her provided service,
as she gave of herself in affectionate ways
to the lonely men she met on the way,
yet when they had completed their fill
she was alone again
as they returned to their lives and their wives
 
Fate brought her in time to cross paths
with someone as desperate and lonely as her
A recent immigrant, poor English at best,
finding America less welcoming than planned
He had defected, escaping a communist country
only to find his new life prejudiced 
Black listed and shunned no one to embrace his talents
Desperate he looked for a way to stay
for as bad as it was, his home country was much worse
 
They met one night in an empty bar
each had stopped for shelter
from the wintery night of gale winds and snow
Perhaps there was comfort sharing despair
Both desperate for the sense of belonging
A matter of convenience a means to survive
they partnered together with hope of a new life
But the fear and pain had consumed them completely
and they forgot to welcome any good in their life
 
They married each other and tried I suppose
as she gave birth to two baby boys in a row
Never enough money to support them for long
Never enough love to go all around
He made his living as a petty thief, a common burglar,
a pick pocket.  She stayed home to raise her boys
yet comforted herself with alcohol. She drowned her sorrow
and numbed her pain,
she’d fallen so far and no light appeared
because she never remembered to invite it there
 
He was in and out of county jails, serving time
as his crimes prevailed.
Mingling with those other scheming minds,
never encountering a guiding light,
for he’d fallen so far and he had forgotten,
yet was always nearby waiting invitation
 
Upon his release of his latest term, he returned to her,
and found she’d gone back to the streets
working again, to her, an old friend
for it was all she knew to survive
It angered him, and brewed a rage
and the pain inside him exploded
he beat her and then he raped her
Creating again another child in the world
and this one, this time, was a girl
 
Perhaps their very angel, their moment of light
required in this ghetto of darkness
and still they didn’t know,
still they unreceived
still they never welcomed
the light into their life
 
Falling further into their black hole existence
they never would recover.  She died at the age of 32
cause of death unknown, perhaps her liver, perhaps her heart,
perhaps she gave up the will to live
He died at age 40 a skid row bum, found near a trash bin
his heart finally undone
 
and what of their babies,  
destiny…was survival in some other plan
Because children are still so close to god
and children have not forgotten love
and children will always believe
even when their mother is Eloise
 
 
Debby Weinberger
© 2005