raised in the wrong ways

I’ve never been any good at fire-safety
because I was raised to be a sacrifice

by men who explode & the word belief
by women who bleed one way or another-

mother… he threatened to slit his throat
in front of us when we tried to leave.

why deliver us through water
to burn 
up in a family like this?

 

 

Shaun Hill is a queer poet living in the Midlands. His work has previously been published in Eighty-Four: Poems on Male Suicide (Verve), and is forthcoming in The Projectionist’s Playground. Find him on Instagram @warmbloodedthing.