Father

I've braved the toxicity of your life
Your tainted words
The acid pouring down on me like a torrent
All that rain and no flood, just corrosion.

I can taste the stain you left on me,
Barely breathing in my sleep.
I remember the weight of your darkness
Fists aimed at me, just out of reach.

You never knew you were a clone
Repeating what had been done to you
Like it was the most normal thing.
Simple, to threaten my life, fragile as it was then,
Curse it away before it had even been lived.

I knew before I pulled the trigger that
I'd misfire tragically, aiming at nothing
While picturing your face.
The sky like a giant target, one cloud,
You, in the center, my bullet flying by,
Just missing your most precious parts.

Delicate flesh, so vulnerable to the piercing
Blood pumping within, waiting to be freed from
Arterial bondage.

-GSS - 6/2007