Affairs
Imagined or real; it never mattered.
The gossip alone
cracked sound marriage
Exposing mold teeming for years
Festering at last
visibly
within the children
gnawing structure and belief
dismantling
stronghold turned blind faith
clenching supposed support
in ideas and emotions and goals yet to be formed.
The mold
for years grotesque in its silence
sprung to the surface
in full awareness
And turmoil and defiance and utter despair
within young ones left alone
with their unvoiced questions
doubting
their own importance or sense of existence
Eviscerating any self-worth at all.
And yet
The cracked surface
is polished to gleaming
spouts of love
Alongside helplessness.
And sheer blindness schisms
the reality underneath.
(c) 2017 Iris B. Struller