FATHERHOOD GONE AWRY!

by Tricia Hague-Barrett

Tuesday 10th June 2014 1:38 am

Father's very strict, mother's very weak

Beatings too harsh for a daughter of only 3

You wished that I had died Daddy

You even said it out loud

but i loved you anyhow

Forbidden to walk on the carpet

I was just not good enough

I've tried to fulfill your wishes Daddy

Fifteen times I tried somehow

I ran under buses, in front of cars even.

I took hundreds of pills Daddy

I tried to cut my wrists,

Just to try to make you happy

Why didnt they work Daddy?

You never came to see

Why am I still here?

If only you had shown me

the love that I so richly deserved

My life would have been more content

and the men in my life would not

have continued the patterns you set

END

Comments

Rosie Vallack Mor

Sat 14th Jun 2014 10:55

This is a really elegant mix of emotional rawness and a telling which has a distance emotionally. This piece really affected me and gathered me in. All good things, Rosie

M.C. Newberry

Thu 12th Jun 2014 12:34

From adversity can come a life-enhancing reversal:
the determination never to be like the types who
inflict cruelty on others, usually the helpless
or dependent. In-family cruelty is somehow worse
because it seems self-fulfilling down the
generations UNLESS there is the will and the support to defy the pattern and save those coming
after. One of the greatest compliments that can
be paid to a human being is the simple adjective
"kind". How tragic that so many don't recognise
that or aspire to it.

<Deleted User> (12369)

Tue 10th Jun 2014 19:08

I think I went looking for those who would treat me like my father did. Pity really. I could have reached the stars had I traveled a different road.

Dave D Poet Rhumour

Tue 10th Jun 2014 14:33

Hard hitting lines Tricia - I feel this is another story that would justify some people being banned from parenthood and it is well worth sharing.

There is definitely a link between child abuse and the child growing into a vulnerable adult that suffers similar maltreatment...

It is a different world now in many ways to that we knew as children, with more if not perfect protection for children at risk - personally I think we should ensure all victims of violence are given the support they need to be self assured so they are not picked out by bullies.

Best wishes, Dave

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FATHERHOOD GONE AWRY!

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