Daddy Came Home

Dear paid subscribers, a note before reading:

I normally don’t share poems like this one. However, since you are supporting my art in such a generous way I thought I would give you a glimpse behind the curtain I usually keep shut.

PLEASE BE ADVISED: THIS POEM CONTAINS THEMES OF ABUSE.

This piece came to me as a way of giving language to something I’ve been feeling about this particular moment in time where violence and control have become the worst roommates.

It is not autobiographical.

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Daddy’s home again
Just like he said he would be.

We all thought Daddy was lyin’.
But he wasn’t.

He come back home through
the hole he made in the new screen door.

The little metal latch did not hold
against the heel of his boot.

And just like that
Daddy was back.

Like he never left.

Like he didn’t get taken by
the sheriff the last time he was here.

Drunker on himself than usual.

Daddy stuffed himself down
on one of the kitchen table chairs
and gruffed without looking up,

“Eggs, darlin’.”