Wednesday’s child
The pale girl carried a dark bruise so fresh I flinched,
my breath drawn pity and a rush of outrage.
I wanted to hold a cold hand to her brow.
I wanted to grab her mother’s arm, demand to know how
she could let this violence fall .
The girl hit me with a hard stare.
I mumbled a smile, shuffled away with a guilty face
and grains of shame and grit in my hair.
About Rosalind C Hughes
Rosalind C Hughes is an Episcopal priest, poet, and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.
over the water 