Dirty Secrets Kristin Baker Kristin Baker is a student in S. Webster's creative writing class They are hidden in the dark
like bread they grow mold.
They are forgotten, oppressed,
pushed to the back like last years leftovers in the fridge.
When remembered, they bring colors of shame,
emblazoning the face with hell’s fire.
It is there that they are forged,
designed to steal the innocence of youth,
created to shatter the rose colored windows of childhood.
They disturb once peaceful nights
and turn fun filled days of hide and seek
into fright filled days of hide and peek.
They corrode golden dreams like rust on cheep metal.
They are smile stealers, tear reapers, and fear makers.
They strip the soul’s dignity
ripping it away like flesh from bone,
leaving the heart broken, bare, and alone.

“It would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with
a millstone around your neck then for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
-Luke 17: 2