New-- Reader's Submission

Game Over

Lets play a game daddy…
      just you and me…
Let’s see who can carry this basket of our secrets longer
I dare you to beat me…Beat my record of 28yrs
Can you tell it’s been that long?
                  Look at me…
I am falling sideways,
          slouching from years of silence,
torn by tolerance…
blood
dripping
        from my swollen tongue -
            this tongue…
              my tongue has been bitten
so often…
      too deeply.
Look at me… I am tired.
Inflated eyes
Strain
        to
          look for
              reasons to love you…
While truth clouds my focus
and all I see
are reasons not to.
I am that little girl you neglected.
That little girl
molested
in your home… while you were
in
      the
          shower
            And you knew…
but
never
said
a
word.
And I…
never
said
a
word…
instead
I swallowed that blood between my teeth
and wiped the residue between my legs.
Can you carry this basket?
I will no longer cry
for that little girl that
                  used to be me…
I’ll cry now for the world that
knows
      men
           like
                you.
Silent men.
Weak men…
who say…
        nothing,
who do
        nothing.
When something needs to be done.
I need to be done.
        I will unravel the web of excuses I’ve made for you
            I will tell the truth at my engagement dinner
I will say that you couldn’t come because your wife
               Comes first
                    and I don’t
                        come at all.
You have made that clear
I have been struggling for far too long… fighting the truth that I don’t matter.
And I am done
Know this daddy,
that I am the only one who will
          ever call you by that name.
Know that you have proven to me now, like you did then,
                              that you are still in the shower.
And
I will never be a part of who you are
I am done fighting against you.
I am done trying to be loved by you.
And I am done carrying this basket of our secrets…

Written by Ninive Hernandez