Forever Goodbye

A pair of delicate baby shoes,

Bronzed and set askew, a name

Chiseled on a nameplate.

Down the middle, a baby portrait

Enjoys its day.

Five years ago,

Give or take,

He refused to accept it.

I pleaded that it belonged him,

Just him. A relic of the past.

Knowing his stance, I watched the shoes

Languish in that old box destined for trash.

Measurable hate tucked inside,

Natural and unnatural,

Outweighed logic and love.

Predictable, his stubborn opinion;

Quietly aggressive, his attitude,

Ripping our family apart.

Suddenly, he deserted us-

Turning on brother and sister,

Unable to mend the broken fence.

Voiceless, powerless-

We succumbed.

Xenophobic toward his own blood,

Yenning toward isolation, he rides

Zephyrs of self-afflicted loneliness.