Night
(From our beds between awake and asleep)
Beneath us now, our parents shout and swear.
Then silence, ice-cold with hostility.
We hold hands, and our breath; and gauge the air;
Listen, impotent, to the enmity
We know so well; the same old words with their
Circular relentless futility.
The unpredictable unresolved warfare.
Beneath us now our parents shout and swear
Unbidden pretence of normality
That guides our lives; with blind fidelity
To our unspoken pact; not to betray
The barren wasteful conflict of each day
To neighbours, family; never dare.
Beneath us now our parents shout and swear
I wrote this poem as a sort of spoof based on Rupert Brooke's poem Dawn.
I am sorry that others share these miserable memories. I hated it so - but for us it was the norm, and it was some years before I realise that others do not live like this. It is all engraved on my memory - especially the unspoken agreement to keep up a pretence that all was well.
Water under the bridge of course - but still painful - a childhood of stress cannot be magicked away.