I Didnt...

The day Step Father moved in;

The day a shadow,

Was forever,

Cast over our house.

Sunny days were dull,

Rainy days were miserable.

Step Father – with those cold, detached, dead eyes – lost his job.

He began to drink and argue with Mother.

The amount he drank increased every day.

Fewer days Step Father was sober,

And soon enough,

He was drunk every day.

Now, understand me,

Mother was the kindest most fragile little woman you’d ever see,

She wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Step Father on the other hand,

Was nothing like Mother,

Even before he lost his job,

Before he drank,

Before all this happened.

Step Father’s arguing with Mother, lead to much more,

He started to push her around; push her into things.

He started beating her – punches, kicks.

I tried stopping him once,

That was the last time,

For he threw me into a rat-infested basement

How long I was down there,

I am not sure,

To me it seemed like forever,

But you say it was no more than a month.

But how can that be?

Every night, or what I think was night – there were no windows in the basement –

I heard Step Father’s slurred angry words,

Mother’s weeps,

Crashes of someone falling

But all grew silent – hours, days, even a week.

I grown weary,

Again I slowly climbed the stairs,

Cautiously I turned the knob,

It was actually unlocked!

I found my Mother,

Lying on the floor of the kitchen,

Flies swarming over her

Mother was dead!

Rage grew inside me,

He,

That cold hearted man – Step Father – beat Mother to death.

My rage grew so much that I couldn’t control myself.

I remember stepping over Mother,

And taking out the butcher knife

Then seeing Step Father,

Lying on the carpet,

Blood pooling around him,

And the butcher knife stabbed in him.

Your Honor,

I didn’t know what I was doing.

My rage and hatred over powered me;

it was like someone else took over my body.