2011 Issue - Santa Fe Community College

Timorous
by Elizabeth Raby
She remembered being someone,
or so she thought at the time,
but she ran away, became no one,
afraid of being found out,
learned to be mostly quiet,
hidden at the back of the room
where no one would see
that she had raised her hand.
She marched when everyone marched,
cheered when her voice was one
among many, never felt the force
of water from the fire hose,
the prison door never closed on her,
the truncheon never came down,
but he forgave her, lived the risks
she wouldn’t, loved her anyway.
Santa Fe Literary Review 63