The Open Window

She didn't want them
To hear their intoxicated sound

Every day
When she came home from school
What would be waiting
empty or blood in a pool?

She would escape
To anyone's house
Block out that life
This little frightened mouse

When she was older
At night walking up the street
She could already hear their arguing
Echoing off the concrete

How many bottles
Had they had tonight
Why after so many years
Did they still have to fight?

Her brothers and sisters
The nest they had flown
Leaving her struggling
With her parents alone

It was always through the open window
Their slurred shouting could be heard
Alcohol fuelling
Every single hateful word

Embarrassed, not lonely
She struggled on
Until the day
She could afford a place of her own

She now opens her own windows
And frees her mind
The child of an alcoholic
Those memories she'll leave behind