And we’re all convinced that Mother
just wants to see us cry so we hide in the attic.
Brave Oldest Brother says that we’ll survive
because we’ve all seen worse than this.
We know he means the time Papa left.
This is when Youngest Sister starts coughing.

We all hug her close to stop and soothe the coughing
because no one ever wants to disturb Mother.
We’re all convinced that we’re the only good left
in this family which is why we breathe in the attic.
Middlest Brother hopes for something beyond this.
Second Middlest Sister just hopes we survive.

Almost Youngest Brother knows we’ll survive
and we all know this too until the coughing
gets worse. Youngest Sister doesn’t deserve this.
We all stop breathing when we hear Mother
walking up the shaky stairs to the once safe attic.
It takes a moment to realize she’s already left.

We all think that it’s what we want; to be left
alone. We all think, now, we’ll definitely survive.
It takes a moment to realize we’re locked in the attic.
This is when Youngest Sister starts coughing
blood. We’re all convinced now that Mother
just hates us. Oldest Brother tries to hug us through this.

We’re holding out for something beyond this
and Second Middlest Sister is convinced we should’ve left
like Papa. By now, we all know that’s what Mother
wants. Youngest Sister stutters through her coughing
and her blood that we shouldn’t have to suffer to survive.
Middlest Brother wishes we didn’t need the attic.

We sometimes forget there’s life beyond the attic
but we’re all convinced it’s something better than this.
It’s quiet because Youngest Sister has stopped coughing;
she just lies there and only a few of us are left
talking because this is the only way we can survive.
And we’re all scared because suddenly there’s Mother.

It didn’t take long to realize that Mother didn’t want us to survive.
We hid in the drafty attic because we felt safe and she left us there, starving and broken.
This was our life once and no one pitied Youngest Sister when the coughing killed her.