A man walked into a bar
Sat down and ordered a bottle of whiskey
the bartender said with each and every shot
the task of drinking would get risky

He laughed naturally and turned the bottle on its head
The Amber Brown liquid fell into a shot glass and from there into his head.

At first the whiskey was nice and refreshing
soothing his aches and pains not at all depressing
as he went through each glass he couldn't stop

he realized he was drinking his own life, each day by the drop

When we were nine, you left your mother's home and told
the world you were going travelling. I still wait—
Hoping that maybe one day you will return with your sanity.

I have been waiting twelve years for you—and nineteen years from now,
I will be nineteen—because today is the day I start living,
sanely.

You use italics to cover up the fact that all of the words you speak are your father's.

*"Because no one wants to tilt their head to read between the lines"

my body
has rejected me

too quickly ripened
in the scorch
i am twisted off at the stem

bursting
running streaked against the ground
skin broken by the first hesitant
scrape of teeth

it is unseasonably warm
from across the neighborhood
"******* ******!"
the rumbling masculine undertones
of his voice compress my heart
i crawl into my stomach
seeking shelter from a nonthreat
"liar liar liar liar liar liar liar liar"

he spits
and i cringe
his anger pulses
every anger
that has ever been shoved in my face
whispered in dark rooms
the anger i have witnessed
pierce the skin of women i do not know
the rejected wounds i have absorbed
all wrenched from their hiding places
pulled in pulpy fistfuls
from the crevices of my body

he shocks my system
of sympathetic nerves
like lightning
my palms sweat
i close the window