The Family that Yells At One Another Stays Together
I have wondered about
the ways that families have
of inflicting the most terrible
psychological terror on each other
the best that I have been able
to come up with is that people are
intimate with one another in families
and that that intimacy can be both
frightening
and
embarrassing
Intimacy is like that
frightening
and
embarrassing
I have heard the most terrible
things among those people I love and trust the most
I have also heard the most wonderful
and supportive things – but the wonderful
and supportive things have fallen on deaf ears
with me
The wonderful and supportive things
I have heard first only from complete strangers
only then did I hear
or
remember that I had heard
those very same things from
my family and from those people
who loved me and meant the most to me
sometimes it took years for me to remember
that the wonderful things I was hearing about
myself from strangers
I
first
heard
from
those who were
afraid to be embarrassed
by the intimacy
of our love for one another
Love from strangers is okay
Love from those who I know
doesn’t count for some reason
Like eating chocolate cake on vacation won’t
make me fat but eating chocolate cake at home will
Hearing I love you at home is dirty
Hearing I love you on the road is wholesome and clean
A prophet in his own home,
I guess
nothing new here to see
move along . . . nice day outside. . . move along
