Scared Straighter

fear-mongering from infancy
forcing acceptable behaviors
through mental scars

morals etched in deep
with vivid stories
petrifying children into submission

the fairy tales last forever
in the minds
of impressionable children

the morals passed on
lurid and shocking
mean to stifle and suppress

the stories
a warning
of unacceptability

it’s a wonder how we managed to grow up at all

Susi Bocks – writer/author/poet, has self-published two books – Feeling Human and Every Day I Pause. You can find her work at IWriteHer.com or follow her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MyHumanityInWrittenForm/, where she invites you to read her thoughts and get to know her. Bocks’ work has been published in the anthology SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women and in Scarlet Leaf Review, VitaBrevis, Spillwords, Literary Yard, as well as other literary magazines.

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