Mistaken Identity

But when he was a child they were inseparable,
Not a cross word,
She was the sanctuary,
Would bake cakes sprinkled with sympathy
Promised to be there into infinity

Driven home daily by her silent call
The feelings he never knew
Drove the peddles ever faster
Away from the school where
He was lost

Years served to curdle the milky centre, still weaning
Desserts a plenty, forming like heavy glue
Then seventeen, he bluntly hacked at the umbilical
Lying like a conscript, escaping abroad
The eyes and height belied the effaced identity tag

Letters from home stretched thinly across gaping seas
That sometimes fiercely lapped his brow
Fleeting freedoms swelled waves on which he surfed
Salt mouthed longing for the air filled sponges
Pumping substance into the lifeless life vest.

Tail between legs he returned, no heroes welcome
Parents’ furrowed faces didn’t recognise the child
Save for the chord which hung from the bleeding belly.
A mother wanted to smother
Into the liquid lunch he sank, cursing the world.

Many a girl has cracked away parts of the shell,
And someone has finally been hated for all the love she gave -
Mistaken needs of a fleeing teen.
All this is somehow slowly revealing
The missing person adrift, just off shore.