Daddy, Mommy, brother, me —

We’re a normal family.

Daddy’s drunk for days on end,

Lazy, lost — he won’t pretend.

Jobless, careless, eyes all red,

Needs no one at all, he said —

No one else except our neighbor,

He’s an emo, smokes all day,

Wears a dress like it’s ballet.

Daddy smiles and goes his way,

Why he does — I cannot say.

Daddy shouts and makes a scene,

Scares my Mom — she turns pale-green.

Says he wants to learn again,

Dreams to wed a man, he said.

Says he’s tired of family stuff —

Mom, brother, and me — he’s had enough.

Says he’ll work when cash appears,

Till that day — just smoke and beers.

Mom cries — Daddy drinks all day,

Neighbor in a dress walks this way.

Says, “I’m free! We’re a family,

Me and your Dad, can’t you see?”

“You only torment your Daddy so,

Your Mom, brother, and you — should know!

Your Daddy wants to live his life,

Drink his beer, tickle his butt, escape the strife.

No one can tell him what to do —

so said the rabbi last Saturday”

Brother whispered with Mom one day,

And they said they’d walk away:

“Let him go his crooked way,

Smoke strange stuff, live like a play.

Let him vomit yucky goo,

Let him lose his mind, it’s true.

Let him shout that Mom’s not Mom,

We couldn’t care less ‘bout Dad, shit on!”

We’re on different paths from now,

No hell to go with Dad, somehow.

Mom won’t, brother too, they say,

Just Dad’s drunk face stares all day,

He peers out the window, oh no —

He goes to knead shit, that’s how it goes.