The Woman Nobody Saw
PROMPT #444
The image by Nellie Adamyan is borrowed from Unsplash. It shows a sculpture of a woman mounted on a wooden block, with her head out and body inside a triangular enclosure in a museum. There are people behind, watching the artwork on the opposite wall.
Reena’s Xploration Challenge #444
The Woman Nobody Saw
They walked past her every day.
Some paused near the paintings.
Some discussed colour, technique, history.
Some pointed toward distant ships sailing across painted seas.
Nobody looked at her.
She had been placed upon the wooden pedestal years ago, her body swallowed by stone, her face emerging from it as though she had tried to escape and stopped halfway.
Perhaps that was what the sculptor intended.
Or perhaps nobody had ever asked her.
She watched generations pass.
Children became parents.
Students became teachers.
Young faces returned carrying wrinkles.
The paintings changed walls.
The museum changed directors.
Still she remained.
Silent.
Contained.
Observed occasionally,
but rarely seen.
Then one afternoon, a little girl wandered away from the adults.
She stopped directly in front of the sculpture.
Their eyes met.
The girl tilted her head.
“Are you stuck?”
If marble could laugh, she would have.
For decades, critics had discussed symbolism, composition and form.
Nobody had asked the obvious question.
The child placed her tiny hand against the stone.
“You can come out if you want.”
Something shifted.
Not in the marble.
Not in the museum.
Somewhere deeper.
Because perhaps we all carry a little stone around ourselves.
Expectations.
Responsibilities.
Fear.
The versions of us other people decided we should become.
Layer upon layer, until only a small part of ourselves remains visible.
We call it protection.
Sometimes it becomes a prison.
The little girl’s mother called her name.
She turned to leave, then looked back.
“I see you,” she whispered.
And for the first time in a very long while,
the woman inside the stone
remembered herself.
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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