How a Child Sees

Father gave other women

his emotions and care,

dinners and dreams.

When he came home,

it was all spent,

and he was oblivious

to his wife’s silent screams.

It is so sad—

it is the mother who loses

when she breaks down

into a million pieces.

A father looks calm and collected,

and the mother looks

mad and devastated.

A child hears

and sees her pain,

but the lies and betrayal

of his father

hide behind

a thick curtain.

Perhaps he thinks

his father is calm

and his mother mad.

Because betrayal knows

how to hide

a mother’s heart and soul,

cut out bloody and wide.

And a child is witness

to his mother—

how all night she raged and cried.

And perhaps he thinks

his father is fine,

but his mother is mad

and has crossed every line.