Denied
from the beginning

First, it was the big fight the first night Daddy grilled steaks at the new house, the one that ended
with him driving to Savannah to walk on the beach, able to leave, the scent of charcoal lingering
Next, it was the movie I was supposed to watch for school.
Forbidden: not mature enough for content
Then it was all of the weekends in the middle of nowhere, ridiculed for sport by the other side of the family.
Then the friends turning
The boys using
The bosses denying
The first funeral exclusion
The ghosting
The lies to stop my wedding
The second funeral exclusion
All leading up to being dumped
By the one I gave life.
About the Creator
Harper Lewis
I'm a weirdo nerd who’s extremely subversive. I like rocks, incense, and witchy stuff. Intrusive rhyme bothers me. Some of my fiction might have provoked divorce proceedings in another state.😈
MA English literature, College of Charleston


Comments (3)
That image of your dad being able to just drive to Savannah and walk on the beach while the scent of charcoal lingered… that felt like the first quiet fracture, like someone else always had the option to leave. And the repetition of being excluded — the funerals especially — it builds this ache that’s bigger than any one moment. But the last line, “dumped / By the one I gave life,” just knocked the air out of me. There’s something uniquely brutal about being denied by your own child after a lifetime of being denied in smaller ways. I keep wondering, when you look back at all of it lined up like this, does it feel connected — like a pattern — or does that last one still stand alone in its own kind of heartbreak?
It does seem sad. But very good, nonetheless.
Sad but beautifully 🦋🦋🦋