In a cold hard tone, the words pound the stuffy air

like an atomic bomb.

Ignorance and hatred spew forth through ugly lips

that rest upon a bitter white face.

At the rap of her gavel, our lives become shattered

in a way that lacks common sense, law and mortality.

This day is like a massive earthquake.

Our bodies quiver and tremor uncontrollably

Our tears are like an enormous waterfall.

My offspring was permanently severed from me,

Like the split earth in a quake.

The sweet innocence of a young 4-year old child in pigtails and tiny shoes is sentenced to a life that no child should ever have to endure.

Innocence, shattered and forever lost.

Torment, tears, loneliness and depression become her life.

Security, protection and Love no longer belong to her.

In time, my little one became the feather in the wind, whisked away, visible only in fragments of time with no rhyme or reason, until one day I did not see her.

The days turned to weeks, the weeks to months, the months to years.

Even though time passed by, I remained trapped in a place in time that knew only grief, pain, despair, sadness and darkness.

My soul ached for my grave, but my grave did not come.

Lynda J. Allen – 94-5-00454-5

Lynda J. Allen v. Mark R. Inderbitzin

Pierce County Superior Court

Tacoma, Washington