They're Doing This

The words elevating my little brother over me

Flow freely from the lips of my parents,

Falling from their mouths and filling my head.

A silence follows like lead,

Suffocating me.

I do not cry.

I shed no tear,

Never would I dare let them affect me like that.

At least, not on the surface.

The words slice through whatever heart I have left,

Leaving it more shredded,

Like a cloth when you rip a knife through it over and over.

It makes the same sound

But only I hear.

How dare I let them affect me?

They don’t deserve to break through my barricades

So simply.

They could never love me

And so I have given up on them.

I never was good enough

And so I have considered giving up

Everything.

The things I love:

Diminished to nothing.

How dare I give up everything for them,

When they’d shed not a tear?