Praying Mantis

W i s h i n g so deeply whispering prayers to me you intended on giving, maybe childlike attainable verses so tender my heart would release, but you’re secrets and deceit are the reasons my heart won’t go on living, I beg you father, to stop this tormented abuse…I ask you pretty please. Sincerity you pretend to gift to me by day but an arachnid by night, seething in your damaged relentless camouflaged daily routine. I’ve been accustomed to your furtive predatory lifestyle at first sight, yet you hide from your prey slyly left invisible and completely unseen. Emerald flashes released yet you leave blue bruise’s from your hands, you ambushed me with fear when I wasn’t old enough to look. I thought my mother would be the one to be able to understand, but my innocence and disregard for my childhood you so easily took. You sprung out your legs to leap into the depths of my worst dreams, hunting for a way to ease your appetite for my destruction. Everyone looks at you and sees a remarkable man, so intrigued, but your fangs behind your mask are always ready for my abduction. I lay at night in prayer, as my mother taught me so well to do, asking for relief from the pain inflicted with such eased practice. The only anguish this child will ever endure is from no one else but you, my father, the imperceptible, disguised and iniquitous p r a y i n g mantis. *This is about physical child abuse not sexual child abuse* Praying Mantis - Poetry Contest Sponsor: Anthony Slausen Date Written: August 19, 2016