When I Was Nine

My bedroom had two doors when I was nine One opened into the hall that led to our living room and the other opened into the kitchen Sometimes the door to the kitchen was left open In the beginning it was comforting listening to my parents' voices as I fell asleep Then something happened and things went south real fast I began to hear plates breaking against the wall and glasses smashing to the floor Then one night amidst the yelling and the screaming A butcher's knife came sailing from the kitchen and stuck in the headboard of my bed The knife was gone in the morning but the mark of the knife was still there And I began at such a young age To sit with my back to the wall Long before I was a solider who one day went to war