Witness and Taming the Beast by Libbie Kerr

Witness

There are moments when
my world is shaken.
What seemed so clear
is now uncertain.
I feel lost without definition,
no clear description
of who I am.
But inside, under the
layers of paint that I
placed upon myself,
there I am.
The same.
Clean.
Clear.

The silent witness of my life.

Taming the Beast

The wild nature of pain tore at my
breast until there was nothing left
of who I was.

Forever changed,
I made the beast my friend
And it shows me the suffering of others,
those before me and yet to come.

It shows humanity’s face in my eyes,
it places me within a breath of dying,
and leaves me here and now.
Hollowed out,
I am
hallowed within