Be Good To Your Daughters Poem by Maya Reid

If you were living my life
It’d always be your fault
The apocalypse could come
The sky could come crashing down
And somehow
It would be your fault
At my house
I’m always in the wrong
It’s always something I did
That I wasn’t supposed to
That was
By your standards
Wrong
Or sometimes it’s something
I didn’t do
That I should have done
That makes you change
From the person I love
To the person
With that look in their eyes
With that tone in their voice
That person I hate
And try to avoid
So I end up forgetting
You
The person I love
And who I think loves me
But I can never be sure
Because you never say it
And you never say you’re proud of me
Or that I did a good job
I only screw up
Sometimes we play nice
Act like this is a normal relationship
But in reality
Your screams, curses, and beatings
Have broken us
When I grow up
I won’t be like you
Mother
I won’t raise my kids like you raised me
They’ll never be afraid to come home
They’ll never fear my wrath
But love my “normal” times
I won’t love them
Then suddenly stop
Like you did
The only trace of you
Mother
Will be the sad look in my eyes
The voice that haunts my dreams
The sigh beneath my words
Much like I see in you.