Ode to Foster Care

(There are many loving, giving foster parents and some decent programs out there too. This poem is not about you; it's about everyone/everything else.)

They call it foster "care."

But nothing about it is "caring."

And the only thing that it fosters

Is a sense of despair

Worthlessness

Fear 

Hopelessness

Mistrust

And eventually, apathy.

The orphanages of old were bulldozed

And in their place arose something just as sinister

Maybe more so, because of its gilded outer appearance

Masking the horrors that dwell within

Like the foster "parents" who don't parent,

Who are only in it for tax-free dollars

And/or for a live-in child sex toy and human punching bag.

Photo credit: citelighter.com

It's a sad existence

But who are you supposed to tell?

Who believes a foster kid?

Do you tell your teacher - the teacher you barely know because you've moved six times in three years - who probably won't believe you?

Do you tell the foster "mom" - who is married to the person who is abusing you and will probably accuse you of lying?

Do you tell your foster "brother," who also forces himself on you at night on the nights that your foster "father" doesn't?

Do you tell your case manager - the fifth one you've had this year because of the heavy staff turnover?

You tell no one.

You learn to tune out

You learn to block the pain

You learn how not to care

About yourself.

Why should you care 

When no one else cares about you?

Photo credit: Casa do Menor, Italy

There are no heroes in this story

There are seldom happy endings

Some kids get one

But you don't.

You are nothing but a case file,

Nothing but another ward of the state,

Nothing but a piece of @$$ to a pervert,

Nothing but someone's paycheck.

No one champions your cause

Your life is in the hands of a system too broken to heal itself

Kind, well-meaning but ill-equipped case "managers"

Or jaded not so well-meaning ones 

Juggling gargantuan caseloads

Barreling through bureaucracy

Eventually getting burned out

And, like everyone else in your life, quitting and leaving.

Leaving.

That's the only constant you know...

That everyone - everyone eventually leaves. 

Photo credit: blackandbrownnews.com

(Please visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network HERE for resources to help abused and traumatized youth.)