Madison Eccleton
Broken
I missed you
Once, when I was young
and naive.
Your beauty pulled me in–
However, it was your anger
That made me leave.
At first, I almost didn’t.
‘She loves me–’ I would cry.
You broke me,
Made me believe I deserved it.
I still sometimes question
If I did, or not.
You broke me–
I’m broken for the better.
When I became aware
I first became aware,
As song filtered through the car
That life was short
And most unfair.
​
I did not fear death,
I only came to resent it.
To question it,
To wonder at it.
​
I had my first brush with death,
Only at age eleven.
When I found my father
lifeless, Lost to his own
depression.
​
I did not fear it then,
And I do not fear it now– I simply wish to understand, Someday. Somewhere.
Somehow.
What is it like?
A father’s love.
What is that like?
I am not sure I know.
To me, it is empty.
It takes but does not give.
It is hollow. Absent.
​
How can something be so absent,
Yet so present in one’s life?
​
My father’s love is like the ghost of a noose around my
neck. Suffocating, choking, yet I cannot see it.
​
To me, that is a father’s love.
Longing
i cry out into the
silence– longing for you.
​
i give my heart and soul–
longing for you.
​
i tear myself apart–
longing for you.
​
i bleed myself dry–
longing for you.
​
i can’t take the vulnerability of
it– this longing for you.
​
do you long, too?
Small
Small–
I feel small
Trapped in a cage
I do not belong
I feel small.
​
The bars
Press against my skin
and the ground
It digs into my knees
I feel small.
Someone like me
Should not feel small
But I do
anyway,
I feel small.
​
The cage
Makes me feel small
But no, not as small
As your hands on my neck, And
your words down my throat
​
The cage makes me feel
small But you
Make me feel smaller
Smaller than I can bear
Small.
Bio
Madison Eccleton is a freshman Theatre major and has been writing ever since elementary school. They enjoy reading fantasy and romance as well as crime novels, and they have in recent years started getting more into poetry. Madi has entered their writing into different contests online, and practices their craft whenever they can. Madi writes poetry that both reflects them and also fictional poetry reflecting the minds of characters they have written. They are hoping to publish a book in the coming years.