Family

Family has many fonts

Filling the pages of my autobiography

And it spells itself anew each time.

F, for the forging

Where it all began and

F, for the failure

Where it splintered apart

A, for the affinity

I once felt in our unity and

A, for the apathy

That became of it

M, for the matriarch

A title handed down and

M, for the memories

Of those who once held it

I, for the investment

We once held for blood and

I, for the individuals

We all became

L, for the love

That is expected of us and

L, for the loss

Of it all

Y, for the years

We spent all together and

Y, for the years since

Spent fractured apart.

All bonds have their weaknesses

Be blood or water borne

But the cracks that form

Are hard to fill

And fill

And fill

Until you've lost yourself to war

You never wanted and

Wasted breath on things

That ceased to matter

Or never should have

In the first place.

I sit in limbo now,

Adrift from the shores

And sailing ever onward

Unafraid of who dares to follow

And less so of those

Who stay behind

For now I will drift between

Until the dust settles

And family

Rewrites itself again.