Father

The boy stands alone
Surrounded by the screams
Always, the screams
Reverberating through his bones
Making the earth tremble
Rending it asunder
Until he falls
Down, into a supreme abyss
Surrounded by shadows that claw at him
Dragging him down.
But even here, in the bowels of the earth
The screams never release him
And no one comes to his aid
For the wounds are all within
Invisible to the world
And the powers that be,
Those guardians of the weak,
Say this is not abuse.
If blood doesn't flow,
If bones don't break,
Then this is not abuse.
A broken soul doesn't count.

Now, the boy is a man.
He climbs forth from the chasm
The screams still pursuing him
But they can't hurt him anymore.
What once was flesh
Now is stone
For in that void where he did abide
He left behind all childish things
Hopes and dreams,
Joy and love,
Dignity and self respect,
Relics of innocence forever irreclaimable
And he finally understands what it means to grow up.

Still the screams hound him
Through all his days
Till finally they trail off
Into rattling coughs and groans
As an old man falls before him.
The screams finally quelled,
The silence, deafening,
He looks down at the fallen form,
The one who had pummeled him with words,
The merciless bastard who had stolen his innocence,
Finally quiet,
Finally gone,
And, shuddering, he falls to his knees
And weeps for them both.