QUICKSAND
It’s your job to help children. Support families, Prevent lifetimes of inadequacy. To offer potential mothers A way out.
It’s your fault I was born. You see, I wasn’t meant to exist. You buried my parents’ futures; They could have run the world Without me.
How come all she saw was darkness?
free verse Audrey Enghauser // 10
It’s your fault we can’t eat every meal, That Mom and Dad’s best isn’t enough. That I’m guilty for every need, Silent about every desire. That I pull my family into poverty Like quicksand. All it took was a trip into our world, A quick glimpse into the lives of people like me. It might have become clearer How a little push Could erase A top class mistake. It’s your fault we don’t have a proper home, That my parents will never have the mansion of their dreams. That my memory is tainted with Nights spent in the car. I pull them deeper.
42
distortion
It’s your fault that my education is left behind That I can’t go to college Because we have to eat. I could have made our country better, But I am quicksand. It’s your fault that our bank account is obliterated By everyday expenses That probably seem as small as ocean tides to you. That a wave could determine life or death. My force blinds them. It’s your fault I wasn’t prevented That this cycle will continue indefinitely With my child And theirs. I pull them under. It’s your fault that I’ll always start At the back of the race, That I blame myself For being quicksand.
