He spat at me once, saying,
"Isn't that what family's for?"
I still taste tears in my eyes
though I turned, walked out the door.

Clearly he was under some
impression my life was more than
what it was, because I had
no safe space, no love, no one.
 
Still I loved because I was
under the impression that
she whom I loved, defended
at every turn and believed,

Had love in her heart deep down.
I chose love devotedly,
swayed by certainty I was
strong enough to bear burden.

So when I was so ignored
and they kept playing card games,
not to mention all other
trickery, I waited for

Trust earned to be given me.
When it became apparent
that deception too was there
with a parent, maybe two,

I knew, due to impression,
all I had been taught despite
what my heart that sees showed me,
two of three I protected

Many times before too cared.
Yet they too were never true .
Even still, when I could see
how they spun money like webs

And lied to me, thinking they
could make mockery of me,
even still my impression
was I must have been missing

Something. I ask myself why
all felt the need to insist
on painting pretty pictures
for the world to see, create

Impression of perfection,
all the while defaming me,
making me out to be one
I am not, will never be.

I greeted their assassin,

welcoming as always, for
this is who I am. I will
stand strong, and I do belong

Somewhere and maybe right here
and right now, writing the wrongs

that pierced my heart to reveal

what is not mere impression

But expression of something
beautiful in me. I’m sorry
you could not see in my heart
anything at all. Perhaps

This too is illusion held,
a prison of your making.
Buried under what is due
because one made a bargain,

Others participated
for thrills, breathless, and baited
through word, deed and energy.
Darkness presses, impresses

Any who fall sway to the
temptation to see and not
correct their tyranny. It
will take everything if one

Cannot free themselves from false
belief, living under the
impression. Appearances
deceive, this fact plain to see.