Life In The Vertigo

Photo by Егор Белов from Pexels

She was another oath you chose to ignore when it came in handy.

You wanted a daughter who could handle fruit brandy,

A successor with a taste for indecent men who saw her as eye-candy.

Yet, she did not bow to your black-tie ways of circumventing morals.

You gave her away for dimes to keep on your white collar –

And not because you needed yet another blood dollar.

She was a trophy you waltzed around the kitchen once a year.

They believed you when you said, “she is to be feared,”

They trusted you, just you, and stripped away everyone she held dear.

Nobody talks about your deals or how you stay in the shade, no.

She dreaded how they spun the story but learned to live in the vertigo.

On Fridays she even smiled, knowing you are sinking in blow.

With nowhere to go, her mind welcomed every colossal tale,

And her tongue was way too quick for her wit to ever fail.

Still, she waited for your condolences in the mail.

They spoke about her “deadbeat father” behind doors and backs, but never to her.

They assumed that one day she will slow down and adhere,

Only if she listened, only if she finally agreed to hear.

But there is only so much that locks and wrapped lies can cover.

The truth slipped off its masks, releasing all that has been smothered.

She had no choice but to make revenge her lover.

-JW