@ghost_artist's post on Artfol
Here, have a poem I wrote last year about generational trauma.
It ends here:
I've always been empathetic towards you, no matter how hurt I got because back then, you were just a kid. A kid like me. But you are an adult now, and it's up to you to be better, to heal and to make things better for us, for me.
Did it hurt you, when your father fell ill and you had to watch as you lost him.
Did it kill you, when you had to step up and take on adult responsibility to pay for the bills, only to later be kicked to the curb. When she claims you are the financial burden.
And did it tear you apart, that your sister left, and got out. Not offering you a hand when you needed it because she moved on too fast, despite being the older sister who you thought would look out for you.
You claim you don't need to heal, but as I've grown older I've seen it. Seen it in your eyes, the way you speak, the way you yell. How you try to make friends with the teens, try to be "the cool mom", try to relive your teen years that you've never really had.
When we argue because you want so bad for me to live the way you always wanted to.
Or when you deny and deflect because, you can't handle one more thing being your fault.
Your the victim after all, not me.
Right?
But what if I told you that I've been hurting too.
How you hurt me by telling me I cannot feel without being disrespectful. That it's not about me no matter how much I've been wronged.
How it kills me that when I always stepped up as the bigger sister, to help clean, help watch my siblings and make dinner, prove time and time again I am responsible and mature. Only for you to scoff at me and dismiss my pain as being overdramatic when I needed you most.
And how it tears me apart that you want to do right by me now only for it to be too late. That you can't fix anything between us because you can't go back in time to reraise me.
Because now I'm an adult. And it's up to me to heal. So that I can be better.
Though it isn't fair, though we did not break ourselves. Only we can heal ourselves, so not to allow such patterns of hurt and bitterness to be passed down to anyone else.
I know you may never change and be better but that is exactly why I will fight and go on to live and not just survive. To undo all the hurt you've piled onto to me. Even the scars of which can never heal, I will patch them up, stitch by stitch.
Because no matter what I will fight for all those I will influence in my life. My friends, my brothers and sisters. My future children and those who may need me that I have yet to meet
Because no matter what; this ends here.Mar 9, 2026
It ends here:
I've always been empathetic towards you, no matter how hurt I got because back then, you were just a kid. A kid like me. But you are an adult now, and it's up to you to be better, to heal and to make things better for us, for me.
Did it hurt you, when your father fell ill and you had to watch as you lost him.
Did it kill you, when you had to step up and take on adult responsibility to pay for the bills, only to later be kicked to the curb. When she claims you are the financial burden.
And did it tear you apart, that your sister left, and got out. Not offering you a hand when you needed it because she moved on too fast, despite being the older sister who you thought would look out for you.
You claim you don't need to heal, but as I've grown older I've seen it. Seen it in your eyes, the way you speak, the way you yell. How you try to make friends with the teens, try to be "the cool mom", try to relive your teen years that you've never really had.
When we argue because you want so bad for me to live the way you always wanted to.
Or when you deny and deflect because, you can't handle one more thing being your fault.
Your the victim after all, not me.
Right?
But what if I told you that I've been hurting too.
How you hurt me by telling me I cannot feel without being disrespectful. That it's not about me no matter how much I've been wronged.
How it kills me that when I always stepped up as the bigger sister, to help clean, help watch my siblings and make dinner, prove time and time again I am responsible and mature. Only for you to scoff at me and dismiss my pain as being overdramatic when I needed you most.
And how it tears me apart that you want to do right by me now only for it to be too late. That you can't fix anything between us because you can't go back in time to reraise me.
Because now I'm an adult. And it's up to me to heal. So that I can be better.
Though it isn't fair, though we did not break ourselves. Only we can heal ourselves, so not to allow such patterns of hurt and bitterness to be passed down to anyone else.
I know you may never change and be better but that is exactly why I will fight and go on to live and not just survive. To undo all the hurt you've piled onto to me. Even the scars of which can never heal, I will patch them up, stitch by stitch.
Because no matter what I will fight for all those I will influence in my life. My friends, my brothers and sisters. My future children and those who may need me that I have yet to meet
Because no matter what; this ends here.Mar 9, 2026
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