Voices Speak Together

Nate

The living room

Sits,

Silently,

Waiting for movement,

Noise.

But nothing’s coming.

This is Dad’s quiet time.

The time he’s been stuck in for weeks

Since his decline.

He’s sick. Not getting better.

I look to his dark skin and eyes,

black hair so much like my own.

Face with my features.

He stares at the television as if it holds the answers

To Mom’s death

And his disease.

I stare at him

And hope

For answers, too.

Emily

Voices surround me, close me in

Block out the outside.

Mother

Yells

Brother

Yells

They say words I can’t understand.

Won’t understand until I

Can

Heal the

Wounds inside.

Of pain

Of sadness

Of anger

Words float through the air. I push them away

Out-of-control, alone, arrested!

Single, alone, old…

Mother gasps and pushes Brother into his room, forcing him

To submit.

He pushes her back, into her own room.

Don’t even know you anymore!

As if you cared…

What makes walls between people we love?

Is it the love that separates them or is it the people who love?

Why is there a wall between Mother and Brother that no one can patch?

If they loved each other more, would they still fight?

Mother turns into her room and Brother follows

Screaming, pointing, accusing.

 I sit silently and stare

Away.

Christina

My mother still owns me

Years after I’ve left the house

Years after I’ve graduated college

Everyday, she still

Controls

Me.

She tells me I cannot grow out my hair,

I cannot pierce my ears,

I cannot move away from

Her.

Why I am still scared of her,

As if I am five,

When I am really twenty-eight?

I cannot get help; who would care?

Who would face up to

Her?

She says it’s in her

Right.

I am not allowed to have friends

Or talk to men.

Including Daddy.

Daddy doesn’t talk to Mother anymore.

He drinks when I’m here.

Drinks when I’m not.

Watches as she hurts me with words

Sharp enough to cut.

Sometimes, I feel like a failure,

But I’ll keep trying.

I have to.

Davida

He knows I’m watching.

He doesn’t care.

He acts like I’m not here.

If I could learn one thing from him, I know what it’d be.

The unnatural talent

To erase someone’s existence, to ignore them completely

Even as you yell at them.

Mother got smart and left.

I don’t know why she left us behind,

My sister and me,

But I understand how she left,

Almost more than I do myself.

He sits at the dining room table,

Working,

Teaching my sister

The way to be “successful.”

It doesn’t include being as cold as he is to us.

As cruel.

As furious.

He doesn’t even care if, at six,

She already knows she wants to be a teacher.

Teachers have no pay. You can’t pay the bills with books.

He is the reason why

I will never have children of my own.

My worst

Fear

Is turning into

A parent

Like

Him.

Grace

My twin brother and I are nothing alike

The only thing we really share

Is our mother.

Something that he aims to change.

They fight always.

Over everything.

He sleeps at friends’ houses.

At girls’ houses.

He invites me to run, knowing I will not come.

He doesn’t want to share even a last name with me.

I don’t know

Why

The idea of “family” is so repulsive to him

But I know one thing we do share.

We both need

Freedom

To be ourselves.

A luxury our poverty does not allow.

He finds ways to avoid our mother

Even though she’s out eighteen hours a day

Working.

For us

Maybe he wants to be like our father,

There and gone

Not long enough to know him

But

Long enough to miss him.

I know he wants

Out.

But he’s

Too scared

To look for it.

Klein

Lately,

Mom’s been getting old.

She’s losing her youth in front of me.

 I know that it’s Dad’s fault and I hate him for that.

But I can tell he does, too.

I can’t read Mom. I never could.

She works her life away,

Quietly.

Raising as much money as she can to support our hectic family.

Lately

Dad’s been drinking more than he should.

And his self-loathing needs an outlet.

He takes it out mostly on Mom.

Sometimes on me. But

Mostly on

Mom.

Sometimes, I wish

Dad

Would

Leave

Mom alone.

I can see now, as he yells at her.

The wrinkles in her face grow,

Her forehead crinkles,

Her hair turning gray

Before my eyes.

When they fight, I wish.

I hope to God she doesn’t fight back today.

I can tell that when she fights back, she ages years.

More than usual

I contemplate going upstairs,

Hiding the booze,

Running away

With Mom to watch over.

But I know its no use.

I know to give up.

Together

“We speak in different voices.”

It’s true.

Each and every person has their own voice.

You have yours and

I mine.

The six of us, still young, but still fighting,

Step toward the ones we love

“When fighting with the ones we’ve loved.”

We reach out a hand

The fighting stops in surprise

Our voices change with love

They tolerate and bend to forgive

Our loved ones.

“We speak in desperate voices.”

Together, as one, we decide

To forgive

Our loved ones.

We want change for the better

We know what to do

Nate is the first,

He touches his father’s shoulder

There is no reaction, even if he expected one

“When can we say what we’re thinking of?”

Nate leans down and

Kisses his father’s cheek.

Life will get better. It always can.