Denial is a self-portrait taken from, Jaeda DeWalt’s, Haunting Hands series. Image photographed with a self-timer shutter release.

Pain thrives in solitude, secrets and shadows…

ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
The image goes with a poem i wrote about what denial of abuse does to a family, keeping the sickness alive and well… please read the full description to read the poem.

DENIAL
My innocence lost in these dirty sheets
My childhood buried in the stains of my mattress
Mother puts fresh sheets on the bed
Tossing the soiled sheets in the wash
Throwing a little DENIAL in with the fabric softener
Evidence erased, as the sheets tumble dry
Mother puts her blinders on
Though she sees his advances
She looks the other way
Allowing another layer of innocence
To be stripped away…

image/poem © Jaeda DeWalt

ON HEALING…
It was very painful for me to not have my parents protect me, especially since my mother knew what was going on. She did not ignore my pleas to be cruel, she just didn’t have the capacity to cope with it. The same thing happened to her as a child and she just couldn’t deal with any of it.
I am so grateful to have found a voice, a place to heal, in this artistic realm. It is here i can safely release the pain, the shame. This allows me wade through the darkness and eventually reach the sunny shores of peace, love and light :).

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