she keeps making the payment
it's just like rent
what the family extracts
she pays by playing
the assigned role
they dangle love before her
like an ornament
like a cat toy
watch it move
she leaps to catch it
starved for love
starved for attention
any attention
cruel hoax
as they yank the toy away
no love
and if she objects
"No yowling.
No howling.
Can't you take a joke?
You are too sensitive."
She curls in the corner
miserable, labelled.
Ignored.
Until they want to play again.
She sneaks out at night
to play with others.
Far enough from their ears
she yowls.
"So? Why do you stay?"
She creeps back to the familiar
but more and more
she wonders
"So? Why do I stay?"
And at last she doesn't.
Gone. No more payments,
for something she never received.