We inherited our fathers hatred

letting his words tattoo into our brains

and flow onto our tongues

every time we were bombarded with something new

these words fell from our lips

stinging at flesh that  was not much different

except for the fact that there color

was not the same as ours

We didn’t know what these words meant

but daddy was always saying them

and no matter how harsh they sounded

they made him smile

and all we ever wanted was for daddy to smile at us

to show us that he was proud of us

and if hurting someone else would make him happy

then we’d gladly kill every hope for humanity there was

We inherited our Mothers pain

from being stuck in marriage that suffocated her

staying only to see her children grow

into the very man that beat her down

with words that ripped at her seams

leaving  her skeletal

We inherited our mother broken smiles

they never really shown bright

always tinged with a bitterness of dreams that

never were accomplished

and sadness  that never went away

no matter how hard she tried drowning herself

in a never ending sea of happy pills

we tried to make her smiles real

but we had to much of him to ever make her happy

We inherited our fathers inclination for alcohol

every sip went straight to our heads making us feel invincible

while his went straight to this fists making him more monstrous

it was only a matter of time before we were pummeled

back into our original roles fathers good little followers

our invince-ability cloak torn to pieces

before we could ever actually use it

We inherited these things without ever really wanting them

they were strapped to our backs an invisible load of misery

that we carried until our  own children were born

We promised ourselves to never be like them

but its harder then it seems
to strip away an inheritance