Deaf

Listen if you can, smile when you don't, for life is but a lone digit.
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Sometimes I rush to step in, carefully treading mines, dodging verbal attacks.. Immunological memory keeps me hollow but protected, instilling clearer vision - to temporarily avoid further conflict and further scarring. This family.

When the words hit my parents, I see the lined face of a silent father, the many images of him standing in the dark, a mother who sacrificed so much she became lost in it all..
Testify the power in mere words: even without the physical violence I feel a deadened weight, the return of a bruise as they reach everyone's ears, ears, eyes..

Before, I felt anger. Sadness has since replaced indignity.

I argue when they say
There's nothing we can do.