[Laika]: 661.Contest Entries.ESS.October 2007

This family


how often can it be
that the very things that keep us together
are the same that tear us apart

this is a happy house
all the secrets tucked nicely under the bed
or behind the paintings
or inside the closets
this is a happy house, I can't take it anymore

I want the courage to stand up
look the woman who pushed me through her hips in the eye
and tell her I will never do that to a child
I never could, not expose an innocent creature
to the cold and the light that creeps through these spotless windows

why can't I tell her?
I'm afraid to see her eyes
when they'd say that she never wanted to do that either
but wasn't lucky enough to have the choice

this is a happy house
every night the family sits down to eat
the daughter, the mother and the man who she married
to support the child that wasn't his