Five years old, or maybe I was six?
The first memory I have to hold on to.
Hiding in my room as screaming begins,
So vicious the poison words they spew.

I drift to sleep but not for long,
Dad swoops me into the truck.
Pitch black outside, my brother crying,
Brain still groggy; mind is amuck.

In the parking lot we sit,
But he won't let me go back to sleep.
A large truck pulls across from us,
Secrets my mother could no longer keep.

With a violent screech Dad takes off,
Truck jerking with every shift.
No words are spoke alone on the road,
Into the night I start to drift.

We wake the next day at Grandma's house,
To a car parked with strangers inside.
Mom's come to take her children back,
And away she swept us like a riptide.

That's the first time I ever met him,
I had no idea who he was.
I did not know what was to come,
That day after we left Grandma's.

When we got home he fixed the doors,
And helped Mom take out the trash.
I had no clue it was all lies,
It happened so quick; in a flash.

A relationship developed quick,
He seems to be so good with kids.
A statement that in a way is true,
Trauma burned behind my eyelids.

But as I grew older feelings changed,
His need for power became too strong.
A story I wish my mom believed,
Forever I'll wonder what I did wrong.