United Front (Generational Trauma)

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you…

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don’t have any kids yourself.

Excerpt from ‘This Be The Verse’ Philip Larkin

If you want to know why you’re fucked up, just look up the tree. The answers are all there. Balancing the pain of changing myself and the rage at my parents with the understanding that they, in turn, were fucked up, led to this piece. Generational trauma is an unending vortex, an unbroken chain passed down from parent to child, parent to child, across generations. Like paint running down a canvas, their weaknesses and flaws, their fears and hatreds seep down into us.

It takes an almighty act of bravery, of courage, of resilience to break this chain, to do the hard thing, and to change the course of a life.