dead man

Watching you die
is like watching the birth
of a ghost in slow motion

Time turns all monsters to dust
and you're no different
though you're more breakable now
than you were when you slammed me
against a wall at 16 over a dropped fork
at the dinner table

You don't scare me any more
haven't in at least a decade
since I realised
all the power you had over me
was all in my head

Old man falling to dust
and I knows it's wrong
that I still want to punch you
that I wish I had
sometime in my youth
though you were a boxer
and wouldn't have hesitated
to floor me
like the bruised ground
was an old friend
I just had to meet

And I hate that everyone wants
to make concessions for
the man with dementia
like you're still not handing
down generational trauma
threatening to beat up
my daughter
cause she couldn't find a closer
parking spot
the day she picked you up
from the doctors

Watching you die
is like watching the birth
of a ghost in slow motion
and for a while now it's been easy
to forget you're a still monster
though your fists bear no weight
and all you can do is roar
impotent to a world that no longer
bends to your will