Mute and dazed, she has surfaced 
in Memphis,Tennessee.
A squad car brought her in
just before dawn, before the sun 
could turn it searchlight on her 
and make her run. Fourteen,
perhaps fifteen, they think.
When they ask her about the cigarette burns 
on her arms and ankles, she shakes her head.
She will not betray her keeper,
nor the location of hell.
When they offer her food, she suspects a trick.
For months or years she waited 
for the rescue that did not come, 
heard their feet overhead 
coming and always going.
By now she denies them even her name.

No mother comes to claim her 
and her emergence among us 
does not explain the seasons.
It happens in autumn as well as spring; 
it is happening now, somewhere 
somebody's daughter comes stumbling
into the light, refusing to give up her dark burden, 
which is all she has brought from home.