Sometimes, I’ve seen the questions in your eyes. The ones that wonder what happened when the moon hung high in the night, illuminating the monster below. The ones that try to make sense of the way I managed to navigate through my adolescence with so much baggage dragging me down. The ones that ponder when you think I’m not paying attention — the ones that scrutinize just what went on in the darkness all those nights. You see, I am the woman that managed to find my way out of hell. I am the woman that battles those demons non-stop while also trying to live in the present. I am the broken woman. The battered woman. The defaced. The defiled. The rotten. I am the woman your mother warned you about.

Sarah Doughty is the tingling wonder-voice behind Heartstring Eulogies. The Silence Between Moonbeams, her poetry chapbook, and…