The Children

When I turned five my mother had two daughters
and she taught me how to wash clothes
My father drove our car to work
so my mother walked us to the market
I showed my mother my tea party
but she had to take care of my sisters
She told me to go play with my friend
who I met one day at school
And my sisters grew and grew
until they could walk on their own
My father got a better job
My mother bought herself a car
All her daughters rode the bus from school
And she made it home to make dinner
One night she told me my friend was dead
During the night her house caught on fire
Her body burned inside with her brothers
her mother watched and screamed
And I cried all night as my mother tucked me in
Then I was alone on the playground at school
And my mother went to the neighbor's for tea
Me and my sisters made our own dinner
and tucked eachother in at night
because my mother and father were tired
I graduated from school and we moved away
But my father didn't come with us
because he had to stay and work
And we didn't see my mother a lot
she met a nice man at the bar
One day my father called her
and she thought she hung up the phone
but he heard everything they said
And he quit his job and took a lot of pills
and poured whiskey into his drinks
My brother was never home
he had a new friend, who slept over a lot
One night his friend crept into my sister's room
and put his hand over her mouth
He took out his knife and cut her deep
in the same spot that he stole her innocence
And told her not to tell or he'll kill her
So we let my brother's friend live with us
because we had no one else
And I missed my mother's dinners
and being tucked in at night