I don't like black licorice

A trip to the store to fetch something
Mom's approval to spend the change

If only I'd known how close you were
To breaking

You looked at the milk and the paltry change
Ten cents short
And instead of beating me,
As I flinched,
You cried
Torrents.

You were inconsolable,
I was suspicious and afraid

I found a corner and hid,
Chewing the bitter
Moments
Of a dark spiral tube

I watched in slow
Stillness until

Dad gets home and calls
And the ambulance arrives

And you vanish from my life for
Sixty endless, uncertain
Days alone.

Black licorice is too much
Like bittersweet
bipolar life

It reminds me
Of dark corners,
Abductions,
And hollow inside,
Like me.