Inside Voices

So torn and confused, how can we decide whose side to choose? 

Their screams echo and reverberate against our skin,

and we wince and wish we could wither away.

But that would expose the naked truth

they work so hard to hide behind us.

Their secrets we must protect. 

Sometimes we close our eyes and pray

that another family would inherit our

loyalty but not demand it so blindly.

And just when the cracks in our foundation spread so far we fear the

crumbling is almost near, 

we hear two words, then three,

then the other repeats

and they are silent for a time,

and then they weep.

And we weep with them, for them,

and for us. 

For the cycle, the tangled web continues and none can escape its 

vicious weaving.