Tuesday at Writers Island: Haunted

This week's writing prompt over at Writers Island is Haunted. It is introduced with a wonderful little spin about a shipwreck on the beach of our island, and how the wreck is haunted by the tortured souls of sailors and pirates. But this week, the word haunted took me into a different direction, and this is how it turned out.

Haunted

I am haunted by the memories,
memories of young puppy love
of desperate teenage sex
of yearning for freedom
independence
and thinking it would be found
in the arms of the man
who rescued me
from the helpless frustration
of living in my father's house.

I am cursed by the changes,
changes wrought in my life
by giving myself to someone
who could not give himself in return,
by meekly submitting
and turning over my power
to one who knew only how to abuse it,
returning me to helpless frustration
as I lived under my husband's roof.

I am blessed by the inspiration,
inspiration of those who live for the Light
of hunting for beauty around me -
songs in the flowerbeds of summer
and poems in the falling leaves of autumn.
I am blessed by a new me,
me who knows she is beautiful
me who knows she is lovable
me who knows she deserves joy.
I am blessed by seeking blessings
by releasing the haunts, the curses,
by finding the lovely, the awesome
and ignoring the frustrating, the crazy-making.

I was haunted.
I was cursed.

I am blessed -
as it was in the beginning
is now
and ever shall be.
May you be blessed, too.