The Inheritance

by John Smallshaw
(London, England)

You used your sex to bludgeon and cajole
controlling me.
I could see the price that I would pay
and the toll
it took
on you.
But you used it anyway and the cost is what was lost
and who you hurt.

Not just me
but your friends
your family
my friends
my sanity.
I stayed because that was the way it was
and
because of love.
The love that withered
and slithered silently away.

Today I see what you've become
what should be fun
is a travesty
but not with me
you're on your own
again.