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Guns on the Dinner Table

Tell me

That gun that you're so proud of

Why does it tremble so much?

Is your hand following your unstable mind?

Is that the same hand that holds your child's?

 

Your emotions

Fragile enough to be crushed with a hug

Insecure enough to attack a compliment

Corrupt enough to endlessly reload on lies and deceit

Are those the same emotions you shoot into your wife at night?

 

Your bullets roar so loudly

What voices are you trying to drown out?

Your heartbeat clanks at the speed of the fallen shells

What are you so afraid of?

A man armed and ready to go off at any moment like you?

 

Tell me

What can you manage to defeat?

With those trembling hands

Uncertain of what to take aim at

You shoot down anything that moves

Uncertain of where the trigger is

You pull at anything you can reach

Uncertain of how much enemies are left

You forever stay in the trenches

I now know that when you bow your head at church that it's not for prayer

 

Then hoping to nullify your senseless you refuse to leave the battlefield

And take no-mans-land everywhere you go

 

You wear your bulletproof vest and rifle to the supermarkets, schools, offices, dinner tables, churches, and funerals

 

Forever firing

Forever charging

Forever defending

Forever fighting

Yourself.

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Written by
Greyrose
22 / M / Caribbean
Published
Nov 22, 2020
Lines·Words
33·221
Tags
#father#gun#fight#war#dinner#family#toxic#masculinity
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