A Hollowing

the bond that had been between them got hollowed out by the stress of taking on too many responsibilities as a young happy couple who thought that for some reason the world would bend at their will & let all the hopes & dreams come true (in a short time). but the typical american family with the typical white picket fence was born out of typical american illusions & with them came the typical american problems, all spun from a country that makes it increasingly hard to raise kids in a family with two parents who do not become so stressed out & damaged by the whole lot of their situation (emotional, financial) that they end up taking it out on each other, eventually splitting up, divorcing, dealing the kids like cards at a poker table (winning hand to the player with the most dough), with the subsequent repetitive slamming of the court doors behind them for years to come over custody battles. now, opposite ways they walk each with visitation rights, each with a crushed dream of the hollywood home life, which they had both so desperately wanted--- left with an absence, left with a hole, a lack, left with a sense of failure & emptiness, just as scooped out as an acorn squash round the “holidays,” just as a deep dark well echoing that last toss of the penny.