tension, tension,

compressed in jars,

stacked on a shelf,

towers of precarious glass,

one day the shelf must topple.

a family

living in a house of delicacy,

so elegant, so satisfied.

 

a maleficent misfortune;

sickness riddled in the mind of a man,

a father serving as the foundation of a family

burdened with an intolerable tragedy.

 

a tedious trek;

bare feet on egg shells,

simmering personalities,

boiling rage

bubbles over the rim of the pot.

 

the unfathomable fear of loss

digs graves

for a family

of skeletons,

love shrouded

by vicious veracity.

 

a miserable coexistence;

abusive bombs blown,

fleets of nefarious tanks

harboring the gamut of hate,

the grovelling of the opposing armies,

a loss for both sides.

why such a war?

 

relatives rival--

serrated knives

slide through scarred skin,

re slit scabs of solace,

ripped wrists of rage,

fruitless fear,

cuts connections.

 

bats of insecurity flutter--

lurking in the shadows,

their beady eyes of judgement

the only lights

hidden in darkness.

 

the fallout of a fatality;

letters laced with loathing

that should be directed at death,

but are pinned on martyrs

of the same household.

 

naivety is nails on a chalkboard;

parents scared of their own grievance,

blame placed on a wife in woe,

children chasmed;

hypocrisy of the prosecution,

charges to the defendant,

applicable to all.

 

a husband,

a son,

a father,

harboring

a brain rotting,

incurable,

in a home of hospice.

 

Lord help the family

that unknowingly

pricked the balloon,

a pop--

causing a precarious shelf

to topple;

 

a family shattered--

the glass of jars

strewn

about the room.

 

a fight gone too far.

 

a tumor of turmoil.