[Cyclefrance]

Sorry I'm only now writing on this, but I have to admit to only seeing it for the first time just this evening.

In your first post on this thread you said that the poem was unfinished, but the last entry makes it sound as though you have finished with the poem.

It's a very strong poem, there's an anger and frustration coming through that seems to be aimed at both the writer and the system that real help wasn't there to be given when it needed to be. I agree with the others that it is very well written and you feel compelled to read it several times because you simply cannot capture everything it offers in one single reading.

You said that something was missing. The two things that perhaps could be added come from your later words describing Liz's life: that this is accepted as normal by her when it could never be for others who have never faced the problems that caused Liz to spiral downwards, and also there is the sad hard fact that Liz is just one of so many that this, or something like this, happens to because society lets them down so badly.

My wife is an EWO. She sometimes describes to me the conditions - both of parents and their surroundings - that she finds when visiting some homes of absentee children. They come too close for comfort to your description of Liz and her life.