Fairy Tales and Family Dinner (and daddy issues)

How many times I cowered under my covers
hiding my feelings behind the words
of the Boxcar Children
or Aslan's comforting speech telling me I may
return to Narnia
anytime I wish
until I turn the last page and slowly awake
to the reality that I lived in.
Remembering the way you belligerently made
sister run from the table
again
tears pouring from her defeated eyes.
Good for you,
you've won the prize.
You've made your little daughter cry,
insisting she was wrong
just so you could be right.
Nobody else agreed
but none of us dared speak.
Your words like napalm
spilling across the kitchen table
burning our family moments
deep into memory.
A scrap book event
to cherish for life
night after night.