What she saw, what she lived to recount,
Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying.
I wondered at this pastor's wife as I read
What she experienced the night she was taken--
She watched out her window as other homes were destroyed,
Other families butchered. And then...
Her home was attacked, family members murdered,
She and her child shot and captured.
She details her days in captivity,
Travelling with these complete strangers--
Watching them revel in their "spoils of war,"
Listening to them laugh as she and her child struggled.
It is clear she comes to loathe them all,
Despise them for the way they treated her.
I wonder at this, though, and cannot help think
Of identical stories where HER people were the captors.
When she talks about holding her child
In its dying moments, I catch my breath.
This happened hundreds of years ago,
But as a mother, I can connect to her.
No one wishes that moment on anyone,
Not even on their worst enemy.
I suppose her "worst enemy" felt it too,
For several women offered to end the child's life--
With a hatchet. (I guess that's the modern equivalent
Of "putting it out of its misery.")
Maybe they were trying to help in their own way.
Who can ever know?
I'm glad the story survived, handed down to us,
But so many have never heard of it...
