Daddy’s Issues
It’s Monday and screwed-up
bits of paper
hit her like rocks and bruise
her inside and her wine (he said was his)
paints the walls and burns
like acid, droplets streaming ravines down her cheeks
and a demon screams get out of my house. The
storm subsides, rainwater settles in the potholes outside then
it’s Tuesday and it’s their house again. They play
Neil Young’s Heart of Gold and all is calm and good –
that hirsute hippie (and his guitar) inexplicably
has the power to bring peace until
Sunday and it’s his house again,
he’s a silent tyrant now, donning his crown,
they’re watching The Shining and she’s hoping
that this time, Jack decides
it’s just not worth it. To her right his mood sits
stagnant but humming, thick gloom
over the roof, and
a small voice in the distance whispers
‘What happened to you?’
So faint he doesn’t flinch or look
up. A pot simmers on the stovetop
close to the boil
so she tip-toes to the kitchen, quiet
as a mouse
avoiding the poison
he lays with his breath.
Molly Wolfe is a recent graduate of Creative Writing and History, achieving a First Class degree. Her passion for poetry started with a teenage obsession with Sylvia Plath, which has led to her becoming prematurely jaded.