Stunting the Family Tree
The following material is part of an effort to give a voice to clients that have a story to tell. The content is of each client’s choosing and it is my sincere hope that the weight of each piece, once borne alone, often in secrecy and shame, can, when shared, become much easier to bear. The stories that chain us to our past can instead become the very fabric that binds us to each other. I am grateful for each person that has chosen to contribute time to this project.
Stunting the Family Tree
You have no class;
You’re warped
You narcissistic sociopath.
You don’t care who you destroy
With your lies and innuendo,
You’ve felled our girls and boys
Believing they have a choice.
Your charm, wit and way with words
It’s all a ploy, to lure souls to the dark side.
You don’t care who you hurt
As long as it inflates your pride.
Twisting prose ‘til nobody knows
What’s really wrong or right,
You’ll put up a show
To convince anybody that black is white.
Decisions aren’t made by you ‘cause you refuse
To take responsibility
But decisions rendered by others, you find crude
No idea is a good idea if it was made by me.
You’ve been replete of your family responsibilities
Not wiping noses or butts,
You’ve been occupied watching TV, using the screens
And chastising us.
Missing the daddy daughter dances, opportunities to assist,
Assemblies, kids’ events and such,
You’ve been a hermit, distant, like you don’t exist,
Always passing the buck.
So now you engage after fifteen years
Your purpose is to skirt the TPO, stave arrest and keep the kids,
You bend the children’s ears making sure they hear
Your calling me a bitch.
Spoil them with gifts and sweets,
Allow hours on their screens, abdicate responsibility,
Treat them like royalty,
Perhaps new monikers would do: Charlotte, Charles, George and Fergie.
You say the kids hate me, and that I should just go
Pack my things, leave the house get out.
You’re missing crucial information you ought to know–
I’m their mother, and the answer is NO!
Now they loathe their mom they once thanked
When love and compassion was once there;
Sentimental feelings have been replaced by silence,
Disdainful, and bitter stares.
So I expect great things from our kids, what good parent doesn’t?
I set them up for success with loving structure and discipline
I’ve loved them so since they were buns in the oven; even our lost one.
I’ll keep on loving them when God calls me home.
The way they’re treating me is a reflection of you,
The words that they say to me are rehearsed
Often, they’ll be very terse: threat, unsafe, abuse, hit and hurt.
It’s not in my bones to teach my kids to be this way, so it’s your soul you should search.
In the wake of our family’s desecration,
You’re leaving pocks of festering devastation
Not the kind anyone can see,
The kind that lives for many years, internally.
You screw with my head ‘til I want relief
Sometimes numbness is welcome
And sometimes it’s grief;
Sometimes it’s death that I think to seek.
The helpless feelings subside with the blink of an eye;
And then I understand you’re controlling my thoughts.
This isn’t right, so I continue this fight
realizing that God ought!
Smugly you think you’ve got all the answers,
Telling the kids their mom is a slime.
You’re as toxic as cancer
Your perverted thinking so sublime.
For the stoke of your ego, and maniacal fun,
The truth is plain to see,
At the expense of your daughters and sons,
You’re stunting our family tree.
