He doesn’t realize how far voices carry
the many painful memories it unleashes
when he shouts at the boy to do this or that
he doesn’t realize how far it brings her back

Back to a time when she had no control
no power to stop things from happening
when she was too young to say no no no
though it makes no difference, even now that she’s grown

He doesn’t know how far back it takes her
he doesn’t care and she knows that
he simply shouts a shout deep from his gut
he doesn’t get it, nor does he give a fuckity fuck.

It springs from the deepest darkest part of her
the questions it bares to her like fanged teeth
what are you still doing here, it taunts her as she seethes
the door’s right there; why don’t you just get up and leave?

But she cannot do that, not while she’s still bound
by self-belief-built bars of culture, expectations and her mistakes
so for now, she’ll let voices carry as far as it can take her ragged soul
screaming in the void and fracturing what long ago was once whole