"DIRTY LITTLE HALF BREED"

"Mama, what's a 'dirty little half-breed'?"
I'd never heard those words before.
And mama got a look on her face,

That same look I see there when daddy
Comes home drinking something dark
From a brown paper bag.

Mama always says, "Sam -
Are you drunk again?"
And he barks out a husky-voiced song,

Grabbing mama around her waist
Dancing her around the kitchen;
Sorrow and pain ravaging her face.

Scalding tears, liquid love cascading
Down her cheeks burning us -
Cauterizing him and baptizing me.

©Copyright 2004 by Annette Morgan