When Daddy Left.

When Daddy Left

The night my father left my mother,

She was crying in her sleep.

Daddy didn’t leave her homeless,

But he might as well have, she’d said

Later, after all the tears

Were shed, and the last cherry cordial

Eaten.

Daddy had left with his mistress.

I had met her.  She was a pretty lady,

With long blonde hair and cute bangs,

And I had asked her to play a song

For me on her guitar.  I secretly wished

She was my mother, but I didn’t tell

My own mother that because I was

Feeling guilty about the whole thing.

I was supposed to love my mother more.

What a rotten daughter I was to think about

My mother like that, as if she were some

Sort of garbage that needed to be taken out.

That’s what Daddy thought about her.

I didn’t need to be thinking that about her

As well.  She had been through enough.

I tried to be comforting.  “You’ll find someone

Ten times better,” I said.  “We’ll help you

Look,” I said.  “Daddy wasn’t that great,”
I said, which made her cry harder.

Maybe I just better shut my mouth from

Now on.