Perfect Little Houseguests

Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics: A Behavioral Approach by Douglas H. Ruben
Chapter 5: Family Rules and Contingencies
Rule 7: Do not play or enjoy yourself


Your children:
are so wonderfully quiet,
they never interrupt,
move slowly
and sit neatly

Your children:
are eyeing but not playing with the toys
I set out for them, same with the snack,
won’t leave this house a mess,
not like the others

Your children:
are still sitting where we left them
an hour ago
same TV channel
remote untouched

Your children:
have faces solemn as past presidents
voices tight and low
in their throats,
emanating from a swallow

Your children:
have bruises I can’t see fizzing
in their armpits
from your hard-pressing thumb
deployed on the walk over

Your children:
show no workings
feet together
hands in lap
eyes concave mirrors
open little echoes

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Rachael Philipps is a poet and journalist and a properly misanthropic Welsh woman with an unhealthy dependency on caffeine and marmalade. She is constantly chastened by her iPhone’s audio settings for playing LCD Soundsystem too loud whilst out on her regular jogs around the mean streets of Westchester. Rachael was awarded a Bethany Arts Poetry Residency in 2021 and was the recipient of an AWP Writer to Writer mentorship for poetry in 2020. Her journalism spans broadcasting for the BBC plus writing and editorial work for print titles including Time Out London, The New York Times, and Food and Wine Magazine. She is currently at work on her first chapbook.