News And Weather At Six Poem by D A Phinney

Daddy's booming again
He's got the Bad Bottle Mommy hates
It makes her voice turn scary
Like screams

I can't hear most of the words
Only feel them
Just Daddy's 'I this, I that, I, I! '
And Mommy's 'bad envirement'

I hide where I always go
So they can't see me
Their thunder voices beat my body
And I shake

I pray
Because Mommy says it works
She says 'God listens'
And he's bigger than Daddy

But I'm afraid that God
Might listen
So I shut up tight
And squeeze all those prayers
Back into rain
And wipe them from my cheeks

It's dark in here
I try to play by counting
Screams
Slams
Bad words
But lately I can't count so high

And later I feel so so tired
I miss my bed and bear
More than Daddy
Or Mommy
I go back to crying
I wish I could make noise, too
And hit

But then the sudden silence comes
I hear the footsteps
Daddy goes
And Mommy goes
And I go hurry to my bed
My wet face smiling
All done!

I cover all of me and Bear
And hear my heart
Still storming in my chest
And wait

The door opens
Mommy sniffles inside
And pulls the blanket
Off my face
I feel her soft lips
Push me into sleep

In the morning
I stay in my room
The kitchen radio blares
About the weather
But I can't understand
And the window is blank
Anything could happen

I hear the car leaving
I find Mommy in the kitchen
Sitting
Smoking again
She looks sideways where I stand
'I made your breakfast'

I sit and eat
And I look at her strange eyes
I still like Mommy's eyes
But she hides them out the window

When I get down
Something bites my foot
And I scream once
Louder than Mommy

She flies to me and cradles my heel
She pulls a spear of pretty glass
Out

'Oh, God, I missed this piece, '
She pours the stinging water on
I cry
More than it hurts

She says it will be all right
Holding me
Shaking

I say I'm sorry
Because I don't want her to cry

And because I am