Big Bad Wolf

I remember hearing stories
About the big bad wolf
Chasing out innocents
Playing the role of the hypocrite
Condescending from every angle
I remember closing my eyes
Ignoring every word
That I heard from the matrons
Who sat, caught up in past regrets
At the dinner table

Nothing in my mind was naturalistic
The bejeweled facade had me
Deceived from the start
Everything in my life was idealized
The forms that I gazed upon
Were just as biased
As the sacrilege
Of your conventional cause

I thought it would be a privelege
To outline and emphasize
Every crooked and jagged line
Of our family portrait
With this scarlet
And shade in all the right regions
That the artist "overlooked"

I remember listening
To your side of the story
But now I roll my eyes
At your professed glory
As you relentlessly proclaim
That God's light
Has shown you the way
And as you remind me
That I'm worth as much as a stray
You don't say it in so many words
But I can tell
It's implied

I remember refusing to believe
Her redder side of the story
Because I was naive
And figured the big bad wolf
Was decent enough to speak
To growl in honest words
But he roars like he's barking mad
And now the colonnades
Have all collapsed
Your basilica is caving in on itself
And your colossus
Has toppled from his ornately decorated throne

Each wife was a caryatid
Ignorant as she
Held tight to every word you said
Every promise you made
And broke so easily
They struggled to keep this palace up
But this utopia has had enough

Here I am
Like your older children were
I hang onto every word you say
Hoping one day you'll change
Until then, I'll try to stay out of range
Barely in your sight
Though you argue otherwise
This way is the closest way to right

You say I'm wrong
You sing your songs
With the same damn words
And the same damn beat
I want something original
Not just a hackneyed cliche
It isn't that much of a feat

I say you're wrong
I sing my songs
With my emotions ringing out
And my beliefs bouncing off the walls
You want something conventional
But I'm biting the bullet that ricochets
As the fortress you built in vain
Caves in on its own halls

You gave me a crooked
Archaic smile
It just wasn't convincing enough
Even for myself to be beguiled
The mask you wear
Leaves your loved ones impaired
And I don't know
Why we bothered to believe
A word you said

I'm not scared of the big bad wolf
After all, you're just a fool
I'm not scared to go into the woods alone
I'm not scared to be a thousand miles from home
I'm not scared of the big bad wolf
I'm too old to be scared of you