Love Destructive [revised] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

There is no peace, no ‘friendship' possible; the
opening salvo - "You are disrespectful of other
people's feelings" showed its author's abetted
superiority, actually describing his own attitude

Should've read "I'm disrespectful" - a brother's
cold, scornful sarcasm takes me right back to a
home without respect - where I shrivel under its
destructive effect, shrinking into insignificance

To escape being an object of scorn in a house
of shame where daggers were out robbing me
of self-confidence and self-esteem long before
I knew what those concepts meant; the buried

Feeling of burning shame for being whom I am
can still be ignited by scornful rejection of every
word I say, every claim I make - robbing me of
the ability to accept the right to feel and speak

Thank God there is an ocean between me and
the speaker, thank God for my Beloved and the
Crocodile Kids following the lodestar of respect
to guide their steps; without it life is unbearable

For me love, without wisdom - without respect -
is the most destructive experience there is…