I was the victim of an Internet scammer who preyed upon the vulnerable from July 2002 until March 2005. I have just this past week found out how bad it really was, and that I was only one of many simultaneous victims. I lost the most, because I loved the most, but there are so many victims, so many stories. I have spoken at length with one in particular, a soldier who was scammed during his entire active-duty year in Iraq, who was waiting to spend Christmas with her upon his return but was left heartbroken; he still has the ring he was going to give her. His dream was to marry her and have a child. I have also spoken at length to her husband of six years, who was very kind. This has been a hard yet healing week for me. With this poem, on the advice of my physician, I mean to put this behind me once and for all. The perpetrator is getting help now from her parents and her husband, and has a lot of explaining to do to a lot of people. But not to me: I have moved on. I would like to make it clear that my friend Franziska has nothing to do with this, and has always been as beautifully supportive as she herself is beautiful. She warned me all along, but I was blinded by lies. Live and learn, live and let live: life goes on.

Hope Rising

Once I loved madly
And so I believed
Someone who badly
Abused and deceived
My absolute trust

When tears rained sadly
My gold turned to rust
All I had received
Was false fairy-dust

I was a mouse for a kitten at play
To whom I never mattered anyway

But: do you know what?

I get the last laugh
She wounded me but
Now comes the next half
They popped her bubble
Shut down her con game

She is in trouble
Now buried in blame
As her woes double
Along with her shame

So: justice is not dead and I can see
Out of these ruins hope rising for me

+Steven Curtis Lance



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