Exception

Raised voices and sarcasm
spite and condescension
easy, understood
fire can be put out, or evacuated.
The cold was worse he said
frigid?
Off the scale – would need its own index – frightening.
Three bedroom house
two adolescents – no alternatives
combatants must share.
Sometimes he wondered
if dawn would arrive, motherless, fatherless, orphaned.

Common sense finally prevailed
over neighbours,
workmates,
friends, congregation members judgement.
Divorce – till death do us not speak
until the older brother’s wedding –
parental duty: family photograph.
Hello Gerald
hello Susan
click, exhale.

No reprise –
death had intervened before his own nuptial
leaving only his mother. It was a relief.