Neglect Stories

It’s 4 AM. My mother wants to drive. There’s nowhere for us to go, but she wants to tell me about Jesus, the devil, and music. It’s summertime. I don’t get to go to school. She has turned the radio knob up as high as it will go, and the sounds of pianos, guitars, and horns fill the air. My mother used to be a sexy singer in a cocktail lounge before her head got sick, all sour. Now, she collects checks in the mailbox, and...

My dear, I can't help wondering what I've done,You've become so cold and distant these days,And yet we always used to have such fun,Happy together in so many ways.You could have tried a bit harder honey;I asked you not to be late home last night,It was only our anniversary,And a simple gift would have been all right,Flowers, and perhaps a bottle of wine,And we could have ordered a takeaway;A cosy evening would have been j...

“Go on, get aht! Me and and yer ma ‘ave some business to attend to!” The little girl looked at her ‘ma’ slouched across the worn and torn sofa, the strap still tight around her upper arm and the syringe, with its old blunt needle, lying on the carpet below her outstretched hand. “I told yer, get lost and don’t come back until yer got summink fer the table, bloody kid!” The empty vodka bottle shattered against the wall clo...

The toddler in diapers was screaming at the door of the cheap white trailer-house. "I think his diapers need changed." My mom looked across the street with concern. We were digging worms from the front flowerbed, a flowerbed that didn't grow anything, so that we could go fishing. The kid kept screaming at the door. It made my mom uncomfortable, but I didn't care. A few weeks later my mom and I were unloading a pickup truc...

I'm sitting in a little cafe, the kind old people eat at. The waitress has given me a menu and she has returned to get my order, but I'm still reading it. "Are you ready? Or are you still making up your mind?" "Oh, Ummm, I think I want a roast beef sandwich and some soup. What is the soup of the day?" I say. "Split pea. Do you want a cup or a bowl?" "A bowl." I say with a smile. Memories are flooding back to me at the men...

I rode my white mare past where Mary lived. The trailer-house looked like it had been dropped accidentally in front of a gray barn. She came out to the white dirt road to talk to me. Her two little brothers stood in the yard and stared. I never rode past her house again, even though she was my friend at school. It was too weird. Mary was stringy. She was thin like a white string, and had stringy blonde hair. She was my on...

What is the price of a childhood lost?And who is the one to pay the cost?For the child who's often left alone,And forced to grow up on their own,Left at home without a reason why,While mommy goes out to get high,For the child who lives in constant fear,Who wants for love, but none is near,And left to cry throughout the night,With no one near to hold her tight,No sheltering arms to wrap around,Or childhood comforts to be f...