A correctional officer from a state prison has a habit of hurting his kids

he yells,

he screams,

 he interrogates,

 but Never hits,

Two little girls scared to tell the word the life they are living,

Treated like inmates instead of children,

Always on alert

Terrified of what he could do next.

Shedding tears

But nobody is around to see them.

They pray for a better tomorrow

“Ignorant”

“pathetic”

“Worthless”

words used by their father

in order to see how they will respond,

to make them shed tears

just for his own personal game

They pray for a better tomorrow

wounds know no boundaries,

the heart takes longer to heal

than a bruise or a scratch.

Yet people say they have it

“Lucky”

“Lucky”

“Lucky”

Like it was a prize to be won

They pray for a better tomorrow

People would have the nerve to say

“At least he's not hitting you”.

“It could have been worse”

But until you've seen this man’s actions you know nothing

of what these girls felt.

 They pray for a better tomorrow

In societies eye he is a respectable, loving father 

But no one bothered to open the door

to see a wife who has no love left

or two little girls struggling to show the world that they are hurting

without the evidence of bruises on their bodies or

 a family who couldn’t take the time to care

 so, they pray for a better tomorrow,

yet why can't people see two little girls

crying out for help, and security.

Bounded by their fathers rage and impulse

with little hope of escaping

they pray for a better tomorrow

they pray for a better tomorrow

but tomorrow is never better

They are victimized by their father who calls them

“ugly”,

“Fat”

 “Retarded”

Manipulated like puppets, they cannot break away from the chains

Their father has reinforced on them,

Creating binds that can't be broken with a single flame

They have stopped praying,

“sorry”

“sorry”

“sorry”

An apologetic mother repeating the same thing, like a daily routine

Feeling guilty for the treatment her daughters have to receive

yet sadly makes little to no effort to halt the actions of her other half.

Which is slowly fraying the bond she has with daughters.

They are not praying,

No

But dreaming of a better tomorrow