And then I realized
nobody in this family cared about each other
in the first place.
Parents, spouses, siblings,
friends, acquaintances, strangers,
foes,
we fight a common battle
and yet blood sheds all the same.
Why must it be so?

Why must my grandmother suffer at age eighty,
with her husband dead and her daughter's
marriage still in the works? And
why must her co-grandmother,
after her failed matrimony,
put up with the hate and shame of yet another?

Why must my father
put trust behind desire
a distortion in order that
no level of repentance can fix? And
why must my mother,
whose heart compared to hurt could not be bigger,
have to be tested and dragged down under?

Why must my brother, a tender schoolboy,
witness his family crumble,
his parents loveless, unimaginable? And
why must I be caught in the middle,
the unwilling judge, the unskilful juggler,
the daughter scarred by love forever?

And then I realized
nobody in this family cared about each other
in the first place.