Inherited Traitors Poem by Patti Masterman

I thought we would become like sisters
But instead, she became the jealous adversary.

And the other woman pretended friendship
Drowning in her personal bottle of selfish
While trying to kill and sever my connections.

I never looked for harm before, without real motive:
I was in a guerrilla war without benefit of basic training
The oldest war known to mankind
The war where the enemy whittles away at you till you've disappeared.

Now I take no prisoners; the enemy is all around
But I have learned that distance minimizes injury
I don't believe I am the only woman
Forced to live in this war zone
Of feminine wiles and clandestine secrets.

No longer walking through mine fields,
Tiptoeing with my eyes shut
Past the other headless bodies.

Who thought deceit would always arrive in recognizable clothes?
Don't waste time trying to imagine it might have been different:
Some evils can't be avoided in civilizations alliances
It has been so since the dawn of human society:
Traitors that can't be executed must be castrated.