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…so she left

…it was a relationship
based on fear of god,
not love of humanity

…they were Old Testament people
pretending a New Testament world.

They thanked “Lord Jesus”
over a meal or a meeting
then proceeded to repel
torment
dissociate, needle and
choke unconsciously on words,
anger
subdued hatred;

the horror of their curtained world
unfolded within her;
dark-clouding
every room
in that homeless house.

For five years she had cut her soul
on their shattered crockery
of perfected fears
and hasty withdrawals
to distant rooms
in a huge mansion.

“My Father’s kingdom has many mansions; but not this one.”
She sighed to her sad, broken-boy.

There was no place
for a future daughter-in-law
to tarry in peace
and wallow in love

…so she left.


MatbbgJ.

Dynamic in its descriptions, mat.
And well she should have left.
Not time to say more,
but I know those kinds of households,
and you had me from word one... so

This makes me curious Mat.

I'm not sure what's going on but the image that comes to mind is a woman who lives in a more conservative/harsh religious community

leaving would be hard if that was where her family/friends/life was.

mat james wrote:For five years she had cut her soul
on the shattered crockery
of their perfected fears
and hasty withdrawals
to distant rooms
in a huge mansion

Great verse Mat .It instantly reminded me of a verse from Kavanagh's Great Hunger for some reason

Maguiire was faithful to death:
He stayed with his mother till she died
At the age of ninety-one.
She stayed too long,
Wife and mother in one.
When she died
The knuckle-bones were cutting the skin of her son's backside
And he was sixty-five.
O he loved his mother
Above all others.
O he loved his ploughs
And he loved his cows
And his happiest dream
Was to clean his arse
With perennial grass
On the bank of some summer stream;
To smoke his pipe
In a sheltered gripe
In the middle of July.
His face in a mist
And two stones in his fist
And an impotent worm on his thigh.
But his passion became a plague
For he grew feeble bringing the vague
Women of his mind to lust nearness,
Once a week at least flesh must make an appearance.
So Maguire got tired
Of the no-target gun fired
And returned to his headland of carrots and cabbage
To the fields once again
Where eunuchs can be men
And life is more lousy than savage.

Ha! Thanks for your comments/reactions, Lizzy, Cate and the poem,Brid.

"To the fields once again
Where eunuchs can be men
And life is more lousy than savage."

Ha! Great little ditty for an ending.

My poem is about a young woman who is engaged to a young man who has dysfunctional parents; dysfunctional in the way the poem suggests.
I have written/constructed it to be a little confusing. I had hoped that readers may be confused as to whether the Mother of the boy or the "fiance" left the scene.
In my opinion they should both leave this clouded house.
But, of course I feel sorry for the young couple who should otherwise have a sound relationship if it wasn't for the cold distance (between the parents) she, the fiance, experiences in that void; and the desire she has to be a part of a " loving family".

I heard about this situation along the grapevine. I know the family and I understand the young woman's reservations about bonding to this group of strangers.
I thought it interesting burly for a poem. And hence "....so she left."

Life is always more interesting than fiction; and surprising.
I take my hat of to the young woman for knowing that, for her, the extended family was important.
I think she is also worried that sonny might turn out like daddy.

Who knows? ..........Food (burly) for thought.

Mat.

I read it as the young woman getting out of the dysfunctional family while the getting was good.
If she married him, she sure enough married his family, too... and all that comes with that.