A Belfast Lullaby (pt. 1)

[chairmanyang]

This could fit into a few categories here but it seemed to evoke tragedy the most, thank you for reading.


A Belfast Lullaby (pt.1)

His feet thunder with each footstep up the stairs
he mumbles, he fumbles and splutters
he's had a bucket full, enough to drown a fish
The drunken cacophony momentarily wanes outside the door
from beneath the covers that sound,
that sound that eclipses my senses
the door squeaks open and closed
I lay there shivering in absolute terror
as I hear them arguing
tears streaming down my small and pale face
I plead to god to make the noise stop
until I am shaken from my prayer
by that all to familiar sound of his hand across her face
and all i could do at such a tender age
Is cower from his rampage and weep for my mother

[dwells]

The burdens we encumber our children with. You have encapsulated the terror in its elemental essence here CY; with an unforgettable title too.. Cheers my friend - Dan

[Kornelia]

Chairman
Very touching poem, I can sense the story line and think this is a very genuine and moving tale, thanks for the read!!

Kornelia

[Forestdawn]

ChairmanYang

What a surreal and devastating life for a child. I believe there is a high percentage of abused children,then and now that will/have never get reported and that really is hard to imagine.

Really good imagery in your poem. So sad for the child.

Blessings

[Sylvierue]

The title is an excellent entry into the poem, I think, as it offers a real sense of place and station that the poem itself remains mute on. There's something gruff and masculine to my mind about the combo of those three words that works really well.

It is a tragic kind of circumstance when a child becomes programmed in such an apprehensive way of life. But I think your poem lends a voice to something important, and it helps to articulate experience in a way that can be helpful as an act and informative and artful.

I felt that this poem was both, and the mood created by the scene offered a similar sense of fear and dread in the reading, so I thought that also well-done. Great work.

[chairmanyang]

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting, I am humbled by your appreciation for my work. Hopefully it wont take me too long to write part 2, though I tend to be something of a perfectionist with my writing.

Thank you again everyone who enjoyed reading my work.

[deadpoet]

The intensity of childhood trauma is well-conveyed. Your style is almost conversational and it is that matter-of-factness, that screaming understatedness, which lets me as reader better understand how the 'banality of evil' can reach into every level and depth of human experience.