The Brick House {entered in the Childhood Home Comp}

 everything meticulously kept  
beautiful trees and gardens enveloped the  
hard exterior  
everything always looked  
good from the outside  
we were the perfect  
white middle class family  
it was the times  
that what happened  
inside, stayed inside  
yes, we had the perfect white picket fence  
to the back yard  
the gate that squeaked whenever  
you tried to sneak in late  
hop scotch in the driveway  
kickball in the street  
all the neighborhood kids  
somehow ended up in our yard  
the beautiful dogwood trees I was  
not allowed to climb  
but what my parents  
did not know couldn't hurt them  
or me, a lesson i managed to learn  
on a frequent basis  
i got my first kiss in that dogwood tree  
i said my first swear word there  
when a small chunk of bark fell  
off and landed in my eye as i swung from  
it's branches  
the green lush lawn that we would  
do cartwheels on  
and play tag, hide and seek  
my older sister and her friends  
not wanting me to tag along  
had me be "it" in hide and seek  
so they could sneak away into town  
leaving me to hunt for them longer  
than I'd care to mention  
the five brick stairs that went up to the house  
that my mom fell down one day in anger  
when my sister and I did not answer the  
dinner bell to come inside  
cutting her leg open and leaving a scar  
she still has today  
the hard lesson we learned  
when those infamous words were spoken  
wait till your father comes home  
meant a serious punishment  
and one that was carried out  
without hesitation  
it was the first and last time  
my father ever had to spank me  
i was six  
after that any punishment  
was dutifully carried out by my mother  
whose favorite tool was her wooden spoon  
i was hit with that more than I'd care to mention  
in her eyes I was always her trouble  
with a capital "T"  
so I learned to stay away  
and hide away where she could  
not reach me  
my sisters room on the top floor  
had a door that opened up to the  
balcony that was actually the roof  
to our garage  
it was surrounded by a low fence  
and covered in black tar  
in the summer months you could fry an  
egg out there or ourselves which  
happened quite often  
none of our friends were allowed  
up there, but as I said what my parents  
did not know…  
i often climbed out the bedroom window  
and rested against the wall, listening to music  
or reading out there staying out of sight  
being all girls how much trouble  
could we possibly get in?  
I was daddy's girl through and through  
and I had him wrapped around my pinky solid  
which put even more of a strain on my  
relationship with my mom  
who got it in her warped head  
that at the age of 15 I must be a slut  
which she brought to my  
attention when she learned a boy had  
asked me out…i got the double barrel of her anger then  
tongue and hands as soon as I walked in the door  
because I came home one minute over curfew  
after that she seemed to find any excuse  
to get physical with me  
i learned when to come and go  
to avoid her wrath  
hanging out in large groups of friends  
going to school and being the dutiful daughter  
following all the rules as far as my parents knew  
that is  
by the time I turned 17  
I was quite finished with  
the whole scenario  
our family was an illusion  
the perfect lie  
i moved half way through my senior year  
of high school to live with my aunt  
because anything had to be better than this  
so many memories, but not all of them bad  
the best years of my childhood  
happened before the age of ten…  
those are the ones I prefer to remember  
 
I walked away and never looked back