A letter to the Kids in the Pictures
April 7, 2021
woodbine
I only saw you for a moment. A moment when I was scared and tiny eyes were staring at me, thirsty. 2 grown men were there. So were you.
Pictures. Developed at a local drug store. There you were. Some naked. Some looking not alive. Some who needed diapers and some who you could tell had no mother.
I am sorry I didn’t come the year before or the year before that or the year before that. I didn’t realize how mean they were being to all of you. I now know.
I have come to the conclusion that the child pornography that I saw in the Janitor’s Office that day at Woodbine Elementary School could very much be any evidence you ever experienced life. Who knows where you are now.
So with the horrible memories of seeing those pictures of innocent children being objectified for sex, I will remember that none of what is being done to my family is being done in vain. You are real and so are we. We are human and that is what brings us together.
I will tell people to be more brave and less unwise. I will hold my own a little closer and be slower when introducing them to people that may want to hurt them.
I am not a perfect person or mother. This world is broken and unwhole. I will forever remember you as the “children in the pictures” and I will pray for your family no matter where you are.