He

He sold her every night

For liquor,

Beat her during the day,

She couldn't finish all the chores.

He shuttered the windows tight

So she couldn't see

The world outside;

The kids going to school

With their canvas bags

On their backs.

She was thirteen

She wanted to play,

The world outside was where

She wanted to belong,

The sight, the sound, the smell

All beckoned,

Yet he allowed her none.

Whenever she expressed

A wish,

He beat her black and blue,

Now she is eighteen

In full bloom;

So he sold her

To the highest bidder,

A man of fifty

An impotent she was told,

He wished to marry,

Wanted a woman,

That he could maul every night;

So he sold her to him.

Passing out of the door

For one last time,

She looks at the tiny home

Longingly,

For here were her dreams,

Her aspirations, her desires,

And even her, all buried.

He was standing at the door

Bottle in hand,

Indifferent as ever,

She looks at him

One last time,

He was her father.