Incommunicado

No more will your sick toxic presence fill our doorway with its stench 

For you made your choice years ago, aligning yourselves with lies and hate

You abandoned truth and justice

Choosing instead to chase after a misguided sense of duty

Then you infected the hearts and minds of your children,

Your friends and family with your twisted tales and sour gossip

Pleas for reconciliation went unanswered 

All attempts to reach out abruptly ignored

So pervasive, so thorough is your hatred

Not even illness and death of our parents softened your hearts

Instead, you grew more distant, more bitter,

Planting even more seeds of mistrust and falsehood

You shunned us at their deathbeds, mocked me at their funerals

Never once reaching out, or sending a card, or to offer a hand

Too afraid to face us like adults, you slandered us behind our backs 

Sending vindictive emails to everyone in our family

And now you think you can call our home, leave messages on my phone

Asking to speak with a disabled brother you’ve neglected for decades

A 68 year old man-child who has lost his parents and his home

Who cannot understand what he’s done to deserve to be ignored

You think you can appeal to my fears

That I don’t know your tricks, your lies and how you create your own truths

Manipulating others with your fake manners and your pseudo Christianity 

Yet you call and text and say you want to talk to him

Without speaking to us

Without an explanation 

Without an offer of help

Without a thank you or acknowledgement for what we do

Every minute, of every day

We love him too much, we honor our parents’ wishes too much

To let you poison his heart and confuse his psyche

We are his guardians

We are his protectors 

We are his stability 

We are his family

And you will never hurt him or leave him again, as long as we live

We see you for what you are

Sad, jealous, damaged shrews

Who build themselves up

By tearing others down

Christians we are, yes, and to live like Christ is our goal

But even Jesus shut toxic, hard-headed people out of his presence

So adieu, farewell, and good riddance

We are not friends, we are no longer family

Leave us alone, and go on with your lives

As for me, I'm with Bob Dylan when he says, 

"I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment I could be you,

Yes I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes,

Then you’d know what a drag it is to see you"