mj

Dec 23, 20211 min

baseball anger

when i was here i spent my years

catching my father’s anger

like too-fast baseballs that rip

straight through the mitt and land

hard on your chest, before dropping to the ground and rolling away.

i stepped in front of my sisters,

even when they asked him to pitch

especially when they didn’t mean to.

i tried my best to protect them so they never had to learn the bitter taste of violence

now i am back

and i wonder if that was the right thing to do

because my sisters do not let his anger drop to the ground, they swallow it

they are so full on my father’s anger that the leftovers spew from their mouths

to him, to their friends, to each other, to me

and how do i catch a liquid rage

when it keeps slipping through my fingers and landing, in burning droplets, on the very chest i used to protect them from hurtling baseballs?

~mj

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