Abuse Hides in the Dark. Turn on Your Light.

Mike’s Story of Abuse

A woman with wide piece of tape over her mouth. She looks angry. Text says 'Break your silence'

Mike’s Signs of Being Abused

I eventually realized it was a bad situation.

Mike’s Emotional Signs of Abuse

Sadness, Anger, Guilt

Mike’s Story of Abuse

The Broken Child

Your voice was like thunder
that rocked my room and my world.

It shook my soul and crushed my spirit.

Where it came from doesn’t matter.

You were wrong
the first time
and the last.

There are no excuses
and I am not to blame.

I will not accept that it was
just your way of letting off steam.

Dad, you were a volcano
erupting near my heart.

It wasn’t smoke and ash
that I feared,
it was the suffocating thought
that tortured my brain

the thought that there was nothing,
nothing in the world
that I could do,
to make you love the broken child
that was too scared to speak

and too hurt to cry.