Anger and Rage

By Luz Helena Thompson, USMC Veteran

He said to write a story, and I’m a lover of words

So I put on the paper the sounds that I heard

I sat down and thought of all the times you were there The times I was broken and angry and scared

My anger and my rage can cut like a knife

They helped me to put up one hell of a fight

I pushed everyone away and they trapped me inside The feelings and thoughts I tried so hard to hide Bottling it all up until I’d finally explode

Screaming loud enough to know I’ve been heard.

It was a controlled, chaotic thing in my head

The gun had been loaded with all the words that I said I pointed it at everyone, who tried to come near Pulling the trigger, at everything that I feared. Lashing out with words that rolled off my tongue Threw things across a room and then I would run Hiding away, where no one could see

How the anger and rage were tormenting me.

It’s a behavior I learned when I was a kid

Paying attention to everything, that my Father did He’d spit words like fire and I’d always get burned It was his defense mechanism, I later learned Something inside him was hurting so much

And I grew up feeling like I wasn’t enough “You’ll never amount to