God Will Save Us All

this is a poem for my dad;

doesn’t matter if you been

through Hell and back; it was

only Hell on Earth, Daddy it

was just war, Desert Storm;

didn’t have to take it out on us

how could you stoop so low?

 

you left us without the electric

paid, said you had to work late

but you were stashing benjamin’s

underneath the seat and snorting

white lines until the morning light

 

I was only eight years old

when Mama dragged me and

my sister out of bed, four in

the morning, parked at the

county jail; Mama scrapped

all the cash up and bailed your

a*s out; we hardly had a Christmas

I said thank you anyway, left

the stove on and you got angry

 

so forgive me Daddy and I’ll

tell you this, I miss the nights

you came home tipsy, read me

stories of wildebeest creatures

 

and I know you said you loved

me but if you loved me, how

come you beat Mom when she

was six months along? another

mouth to feed; we’re beaten and

bruised blue, another woman’s

perfume on you; it’s far from okay

but maybe someday God will save us all

Reviews

[Leslie Philibert]

Good honest poem,what I find really good about this poem is the way you capture exactly how feelings often contradict themselves,these kind of ambivalent love/hate relationship which fashion all of us.And I believe you too,every word is true,which for me is one of the important things about poetry.Great.

[Beautifully Tragic xPoe..]

Truthful, but I thought it was a little jumbled myself. But I seem to get the idea you are trying to express. Great write.

[Atosa]

oh gosh, I have to agree with the previous reviewer, this wasn't wasn't easy to read at all; but it's still beautiful in it's own way. When I was reading it I was reminded of this song called Say it Ain't so by Weezer, sort of the same theme I would say.

- A

[trainwreck]

This was hard to read, but in a painfully honest way. I love the line, "it was just war." there is such power in your words. Great job.