Given
We were family. It was a given
that we loved one another—sometimes
we even said it—no matter who
slammed the door, threw
the plate, punched through
the plaster, flipped the bed,
woke up where, screamed
you’re insane, pounded
the countertop, fist-bruised
the boy’s chest, or watched
in silence the angers unfold.
And our love didn’t stop there.
We were animal lovers too,
we said, and every evening
we ate one—a creature
we had paid someone else to kill.