Poem: Children Raising Children
Left to cry
Why? Dad said to try
Children Raising Children
Tired from work he was
Shaken – the baby was
Frustration, just wanting to peace, they were
Children Raising Children
In the bath
Mum left for a while.
She left for too long.
The child ran outside, naked in its distress
Crying.
Children Raising Children
Dad leaving one morning
Without saying goodbye
Why?
“You didn’t do what I want you to do, so why should I?”
Children Raising Children
Left at school one day
It had a friend say
“She’s forgotten you. Come home with me”.
Children Raising Children
BELT! BASH! SMASH! CRASH!
Running – crying – to the room
Then the mother – perhaps the father –
In hot pursuit
To administer more Doom
Thrown and beaten around the room
The frustrations of an unhappy marriage
“You weren’t an easy child you know”
Is that your excuse
Miss Carriage?!
Miss Carriage of Justice
Miss Carriage of Plight
Is that why I used to hear you?
Waking – Screaming – Crying in Fright…?
Night Terrors
Your Errors
Countless, haunt you with guilt
I’m like Melinda Gordon
I see your ghosts
Amidst the patterns of your dress…
Woven into the tapestry of your hate
For your husband, your father, your brother, your ex-husband
For Yourself.
It would not abate.
As for you, Father.
Although you’ve repented much of your ways
Even your part in this meoldrama – this script
Leaves a mark on these days.
Influx
Reflux
Illnesses Abound.
How much more must we make?
How many more in the ground?
Abandoned, the ship rocked
It rolled.
Till it began to settle
In another.
Land. Of. Old
The land of his escape
The land ancients foretold
The land of Arthur
Of Merlin
Of Tristan and Isolde
His tale he shall regale
In the hope that it will help other souls
In Plight.
In Fright.
So that they and he
Can sleep better
At Night.
