Only Child

Your mother's milk

Your father's anger

The razor wire surrounding him

And far below

Their droning engines

You lay in bed

Blowing out starsThe masters of

Your lonely kingdom

Pulled you along

With red-rimmed eyes

Through endless hours

Of drill and harness

Until you fell, surrenderingBut still they never laid the gun down, only child

They sit like lions in a sunbeam, only child

And never came downRemember all

The roads descending

To who you were, for blurred-out miles?

You smolder now

Coals and embers

Under the frost of indolence

I see you never lay the gun down, only child

You live your life behind a window, only child

And as you barrel down a bloodline, only child