day SIX HUNDRED and SXITY FIVE

Family Tradition

you were beaten until
your glasses and teeth broke
you were ignored and over
worked, touched by your step-father
you were deaf till five
you were raped by every step-father
for years you were taught
god was salvation

you were told you were the messiah
you were told you were the devil
you were told your opinion didn't matter
to shut up and get out
that you were a worthless little shit
that you had no brains no future no guts no sense
and in the meantime
your father drank himself
into oblivion and violence
your mother was blind

The parents who made you
try to kill you as surely
it's the family tradition
the father who kicked you
the mother who called you disgusting
miserablefilthyidiotlittleassholecunt
who blamed you for their lives
and so beat you, taunted you
allowed you to be damaged

and we?
artists because we have to be
else we'd be out there as missionaries
for the system we inherited
fathers beating, mothers letting
stepfathers raping, mothers being jealous
mothers' killing words, fathers being gone
mothers and fathers be damned

I'll be your father, you be mine
we'll fuck and make a mother to beat them all
she will stride big and strong in blue jeans
and a baseball t-shirt that says "Athena"
stout legged and gorgeous breasts
she has milk enough for all of us
and honey to follow
her braids are long as Rapunzel's
salvation and we swing through
the mountains of her capacity to love
as though we were the wind
and her arms were the air

she is a destroyer of destroyers
our Mamma-Shiva
our Matron Saint
the one we should have had

- Jeanette Powers