Just before dusk, the slight teen girl was
running, four-tenths of a mile from home –
convenient target for a boy she knew,
looking for someone to hurt that day.

He snatched and carried her into the woods.
Knife-armed, slashed her face, neck, and side,
pierced her lung and liver, the jugular just missed.
With knife to her throat she kicked him away.
He fled.

Close to dying she lived – testified him
to jail. Returned to run in a month,
bearing scars, haunting fears; slept in
parents’ room three years, no showers alone,
psychiatrist visits three times a week.

A decade since, she survives, she thrives,
business woman, yoga teacher, trying to pay
it forward, trying to face the challenge
of her attacker – jail free now.

In a world where bad things happen, she knows
a very bad happening can make you stronger.

-Sue Neufarth Howard