Secret

By Videl Shaw

What surprises me
is how he combs his hair
so the horns don’t show.
My brother was always so annoying,
a devious little daemon,
I saw his eyes glow
in the dark, crimson red.
One time he put maggots
in my bed, and when I yelled at him
he ran to mum and acted
like an angel.

“Stop it Alex!”
Here’s my mum, a half-assed parent.
It’s not as if she doesn’t care,
It’s just that she’s a blank lifeless robot.
What I hate the most is that I know she’d care more
If I was a daughter.
“Stop talking to yourself Alex!”
She snaps at me.

I was chopping up brownies
My brother was yapping
endlessly, and I kept chopping.
The rhythm escalated our bickering.
The sound of my mum sizzling
Pancakes and muttering about how
She wished she’d had daughters,
It all made red liquid
burst out of my ear,
but my hands kept chopping
rapidly and furiously,
and then
oops,
the blade sliced through my brother’s thumb
and he shouted
like a brick thrown against glass.