Your Brother

Your Brother You didn’t take the food and leave it for your brother Instead you gave it to a stranger and rushed home to your mother She was sitting at the table with hot food for you to eat She looked into your lying eyes “Did you find him on the street?” You didn’t want to hurt her, couldn’t bear to see her cry So you mumbled “Yeah I did” but didn’t look her in the eye You wondered if he was okay and hoped she wouldn’t ask You knew that in the next few days you’d have another task “Take him this warm jacket” or “give him homemade bread” “Take him granny’s blankets to put upon his bed.” You’d just add them to the items built up in your backseat She never understand he didn’t care to eat She wouldn’t comprehend that he didn’t have a bed or that he didn’t want a hat to cover up his head Her generation differed, she lived through the Great Depression She wouldn’t believe her son could create his own oppression You had no sympathy for him he created this affliction How could it be so hard to get sober from addiction? You thought that he could stop and come home any time he wanted You didn’t listen when he said “it’s like being haunted” you smirked the day he told you “I’ve seen the depths of hell” and you blocked your number when he called you on your cell He needed you to have faith in him but you weren’t able He found Faith in the Lord and Without YOU he got Stable by Evelyn C. Swartz 01/04/2020