They say communication saves lives,
I’ve tried, but when the abuse is hurtled
At 60 km per hour, and every syllable I
Speak falls silent under yours, I’m torn.
Your raised us thinking terror was the
Norm and when me, the third born, came
Around brother and sister were already
Damaged. Quiet and reserved. They didn’t
Deserve that. They didn’t deserve this.
Every day back then was a new apocalypse,
Survival of the fittest and we were pitted
Against each other under your reign of
Spit and slur, mother never opened her
Mouth, never voiced an opinion because
Really what was it worth? He doesn’t listen
To me, she abandoned us at sea when the
Waves got too high and our breaths caught
In our throats, don’t touch me, don’t love
Me, don’t talk, I used to wish for that green
Stalk stretching up high to the heavens, I
Would climb until I found a new world where
Words had value and life had mirth, where
Spilled milk and broken vases were regarded
With hushed affirmations that the world didn’t
End, where a mother was loving and a father was
A friend, no dictatorship. The only one who listens
Is in a glass room and if I speak too loudly it shatters
And booms a new kind of problem, they will hear me
Here, tears are ignored and ignorance is dangerous,
People do things for the hell of it but we’ve always
Been an over-calculating kind, reared by poisoned minds
Never care free and safe, trapped by children’s gates and
Feeble forms, you raised us thinking terror was the norm
We’d lock down door and emotion to keep it out, and
Every day we would hear the shouts, vile words always
Rhymed in verse and hold ourselves close because no one
Else ever would.
leannepoetry 