Instead

Momma did her best to silence

the spite-spitting:

threatening those who

left questions in my closet,

distancing any who designed hurt

to fit my bones. Daddy, instead,

made me apologize

to the darkness,

which stared down the hillside,

malice in mind, and in the guise

of a grandmother’s smile.

Untendered child, I quit leaning

into my mother’s shadow; instead,

learned her hellcat ways.