21st Century Home

Bitterness is a casual killer
seeping under the floorboards
of the suburban American home
infusing a stagnant mundanity
with casual violence
casual hatred
the casual degradation of another human being
until it becomes
the very foundation of
despairing matrimony

nestled in its midst
I feel it sinking in
until I too
am trading words like brittle flint
and all our conversations
are jagged and barbed and end with
casual bleeding

and I feel
maybe I fear
that I will calcify
within the press of
all that remains unspoken
under the weight of
all that remains
unforgiven

until the bitterness becomes
my air
also
and
like the other inhabitants of this home
I am reduced to shallow shadow
and bloodless killing
and the quiet
stifling
poison
of modern domestic hatred
but my lungs were not made to breathe
this kind of air

My God, my First Breath
please
save me
remind me
of a lighter time
a lighter air
before the casualness
of bitterness
lulls me into
acceptance