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“Strained Relations by Stewart Stafford

Brother, you have flown from me,
Too often and to that blinding maze,
As capricious as the wind that blows,
No visible shared blood between us.

Are you not my mother's and father's son?
If the fault lies with me, then tell me so,
Or let the bloodied bandage fall from you,
So the wound heals without reinfection.

You picked prized strangers over family,
More damaging self-flagellation as hubris,
They let you down as parents an infant,
Still, you chose a messy path of pain.

The only glimmer of light in the next life,
Is we two reuniting together again, brother,
Or shall you flee to fellow astral travellers?
A last dagger thrust in the permafrost cold?

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”