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
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.
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