Tuesday, September 6, 2022

a fourteen-line poem on family

1. my parents never laugh

2. or smile

3. except phony smiles for non-family

4. painted-on smiles like dolls

5. I take that back

6. my mother smiles at her siblings, & lies about

7. dr. puppetmaster, he

8. gives orders, waits to be obeyed

9. though I see the signs

10. I don’t know he drugs her for sex

11. I deflect, subvert, defy

12. the minefield I veer through

13. scorched, scarred

14. I earn my dead face


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