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
Copyright © Evelyn Swartz | Year Posted 2021
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