Playing the Victim

A Wilmont Interlude

Image: Karolina Grabowska via Unsplash+

If you’ve been reading my new series “Echoes From the Abyss,” then you'll recognize the name “Wilmont,” which is of course the coastal town where the series is set.

Voting for Chapter Two closes soon, and Chapter Three will be out in the next several days, but while you wait, please enjoy this poem for the last day of National Poetry Month.

This piece was inspired by the fictional town, the story, and the real-life events that inspired the series.

If you have yet to check out the series, click here to read Chapter One!

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You laid that town bleeding upon on your altar,
but when the time came, I saw you falter.
For a brief and beautiful moment you looked inside,
Your shame no longer had a place to hide.

You claim to be capable of love, but it’s vanity.
You smile as you slowly drain them of their sanity.
You play the victim when they disobey,
All we wanted was to just feel okay.

Your love is conditional and fake,
Arms open but you slither like a snake.
Holding him hostage beneath the waves,
Promising salvation as you dig our graves.

I finally broke free of your mass manipulation,
but fate’s train has brought me back to your station.
Setting foot in this place I promised I’d leave.
You never offered me a chance to grieve.

Tell me to smile and I’ll pretend it’s all okay.
I’m so tired of this cycle, and yet somehow I’ll stay,
because I don’t want to lose him like before.
So, I’ll open my veins and let the blood pour.

The others are blinded by your wicked ways,
Even when I broke free, my mind took days,
to finally wash away the cancer of you.
Now I’m back and I don’t know what to do.

I wish I could open their eyes and make them see,
that you’ve always been the problem, it wasn't me.
I wanted a loving family, but you won’t barter,
Not unless you can make yourself the martyr.

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Thanks for Reading! Here’s Your Musical Pairing

Listen to this after reading, and stay tuned for new chapters in the Echoes From the Abyss series!