A Requiem for an Abuser

When I was young and innocent and starving
It was then that mother started to turn sour
An apple snatched from a tree too soon
She showed me that monsters hide in the shadows of our lives
They tuck us into bed and give us kisses goodnight
Her love would slip off like a cheap silk nightgown
With my heightened awareness came a greater sense of apathy
I became like the sickly sight of roadkill
Every time we crossed paths she pulverized me a little bit more
We’d cling to the obligatory love we shared
Feeding into the stigma of a mother-daughter relationship
But does blood not flow down the drain as quickly as water?
When every day is a world of hurt, you learn to let go
How do you forgive the unforgivable?
The answer is that you don’t

Amanda Negron attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to get her BA in English. She has been published in numerous journals such as Askew and Tipton, and is currently working on her first novel.