Beth kept her hopes and her dreams in an old coffee can
secreted away in the back of the pantry
it was the only place for them
she daren’t keep them in her head
for fear they might just slip out of her mouth
no, that would not do at all
they wouldn’t tolerate any such nonsense
’cause her dreams weren’t their dreams
so she just had to keep them safe for now
and at least, there in the can,
they wouldn’t be crushed or forgotten
•
Beth kept her money in a tampon box
in plain view in the bathroom cabinet
the one place she knew for sure it would never be found
(he would never touch them and she was past that time in her life)
spare change mostly, left over from running errands
some weeks there wasn’t a nickle unaccounted for
occasionally she was able to squirrel away a dollar
still her “get-the-hell-out-of-here” fund was slow growing
it had taken years but she finally had enough (not a lot but enough)
and she was excited to be going
she would live her own life and never look back
•
Beth knew
there was no hope of ever pleasing her
and he would never STOP
that DNA wasn’t everything
and courage wasn’t genetic
so with all her “crazy thoughts” in her head
a backbone and her “attitude” firmly in place
she left with nothing
except a coffee can
and a box of tampons.
~Melanie Thomason
Wordifull 
❤
🙂