A Fathers Job

A father’s job is to step into the pit with demons

and hold them off until his son grows strong enough

to climb himself out and witness the beatings.

Maybe dad gets to blacken an eye in return

for the punishment of the world. They don’t bruise easy

nor do they balk at having to fight an old man

in front of his kid, “YOU stepped in here with US”

they say, only he doesn’t hear because his ear drums

are imploded from the blows, and he can’t escape

himself because the walls are slick with the blood

he sacrificed to let his son grow to raise his own

until the days of the fighting pits claim him