Lust
Schlikt!
The bed sheets rubbed together
in the quiet darkness.
The only light that lived
was the one in the hallway.
“Dad, stop!
you don’t want to do this.”
“I’m nobody’s goddamned
father.
Your mother
sinned.”
Derek’s head turned
and his eyebrows pinched together.
His hands fisted like he wanted to fight
what he couldn’t get to.
The muzzle of the gun
was pointed at Derek
who stood as his mother’s protector.
She sat at the table.
On the outside she was the
picture of tranquility.
His father’s finger twitched at the
trigger.
He stumbled forward
and Derek didn’t have to guess why.
The light flickered
on
and then
off
then on again.
Sarah quietly passed by.
Derek’s muscled twitched
ready to throw a punch.
“Boy! get out of my way!
That bitch
used me to get you.”
“Derek?”
“Sarah, it’s okay.
Just go back to bed.”
Derek barely took a breath
when he heard small feet
shuffling away.
“Fine.”
Then there were bear-like-hands
on his biceps
and Derek was pushed
into the wall.
BOOM!
The bullet meant for Derek’s
mother escaped the muzzle
and the delicate china cabinet
crashed with his mothers weight.
Then there was
a river of blood
and a fire inside Derek
that’s been building for years
“No.”
Derek sat up haltingly
after the recurring
nightmare.
Could he ever get any
sleep?
Uninterrupted.
Please?
But Derek
believed there was
no one to pray to,
no one to listen after that
fateful night.