Living In The Mind's Cage

104.

Love
Do you know what it is?
Did you ever find out?

Were you raised
To just holler and shout?

Did your mother know?
That you'd be this way
As she did what she did
Every single day

Were you aware?
Of what's past and gone
As each year dwindled
As did our bond

Did you see it?
As each day faded
To black
The rumble of the exhaust
And the keys to the door

Did you hear it?
The defeat in his eyes
His anger, his misery
His own selfish cries

Did you feel it?
Yourself fade away
A shell, in a bed
As he stayed

That the days escaped you
As your feelings became twisted
They turned into something
That screamed the way he did

Did you know
At all?
Were you that far gone?

Did you fail to see us?
As your children
Needing to know right
From wrong

Did you care?
Or were you prepared
To ebb away
And not be who you were
Supposed to

All that time ago
And the effort you made
Was just for show
And your fear
That no one will stay
For you
Because you aren't human at all

You let yourself go
Into a mutilated state
You cut and you trimmed
Yourself to be anyone
To be okay

But no one wanted that
Nor what you were
Your selfishness rotted from within
And the kindness people praised you for
Didn't exist

Bitter
Angry
Miserable
Just like he was
You hated that man
Despised him just cause

Now look at you
Deluded and lost
Insanity ate at you
Look at the cost

You lost everything
Clutching pieces that don't live
You wanted us to be
Just like you did

We were the wood
And you the match
You lit us ablaze
And didn't look back

You promised we burned ourselves
That he did it and made us
Who we are
Destroyed inside out
Char and ash
With black smoke out of our mouths

But you were there
As he made the spark
You finished what he started
And burned through the dark

We writhed
In agony
Not knowing it wasn't true
Who made us this way
And we leaned only on you

Pity we burned out
Crackling in pain
Seeing through the smoke
To your demented game

You don't know
Do you?
How much you've done
We were your test subjects
And you were a scientist having fun

Do you see what you've made?
And what you've destroyed
Now that you're gone

Do you know we were kids?
Not your trauma scorn
Did you even want us?
Do you regret we were born?

Did you ever know yourself?
Before you made this mess
Or did you hope to find out
When you made us broken
And helpless.

~~RDP~~