Dirt

abuse long since over,
no more direct contact,
but your reach knows
no limits.
it's in the minutiae of family life
spreading like a wildfire that
blazes between us,
touching me even though you
no longer can.
I hear the intimate details of your life,
your thoughts passed to me
like an infectious disease with no cure
and I lay dying,
struck down by relatives
blind to the damage they're causing as carriers of your plague.
there is no escape if I want to be
part of the family
because you've convinced everyone that
you are a crucial component
of this world in which I live.
you can do no wrong
so they listen to every declaration
from your mouth,
praise every action you take,
and bury me six feet under
without even realizing
they're holding a shovel and
I'm drowning in your dirt.