How Does A Man

Tue 21st Jul 2026

How does a man
look at his own blood
and see an enemy?

I'm sure God blinked
the day he was put in charge of a child,
because no child should arrive on earth
already being sentenced.

There is a kind of man
who has mastered one act,
murdering people quietly.

Not with knives,
with humiliation,
with alcohol-soaked sermons,
with words grounded
on the edge of a razor,
on the stone
of his own bitterness.

Outside,
he performs victimhood,
but inside,
he turns the house
into a slaughterhouse
and calls it discipline.

Tell me,
any of you,

How does a man
punish a child
for existing too much?
How does a man
look at his own blood
and see an enemy?

They buried him
with praises at funerals.

He provided.
He prayed.
He never missed a Sunday.
Everyone claps for him,
but nobody knew
what he did after the prayers,

because a man
who can abuse
with the Bible in his hand
knows how to make God
an accomplice.

Relatives said,
"He's still your father."
A system that
calls it discipline.

There is a kind of man
who knows
how to make your name
a funeral.

Words flying through the air
like bullets
that already know
where the soft spaces are.

And they always found me.

I learned
the abuser
is not the only guilty one.
Silence
is a second weapon.
I learned
something terrifying
in that house

that people
who do not save you
can wound you
as deeply
as the one
destroying you.

And now,
the world looks at me
and they see
rebellion.
They see
anger.
They see
disrespect.

But nobody,
nobody saw
the child
who learned to sleep
like a soldier
in a war zone.

Nobody saw
the years
I silenced my pain
and swallowed my tears
so nobody
could notice.

So please,

if my voice
ever trembles
when I try
defending myself,
if you see
my hands shaking
when I talk,

understand,
I was raised
by a kind of man
who exists
everywhere.
And I survived him.

©Author Klieng