The music stops dead,
All eyes look twice,
Whispers and words jitter,
Air tangible with spite.

I walk down the centre,
The crowd part on my way,
His eyes cut through me,
I smile, ruined his day.

The family feast of joy,
Serenading a new recruit,
They'd drunk and danced freely
As the family union bore fruit.

But then I walked in the door,
The outcast back into their life,
They boo and jeer me as I go,
But I endured greater strife.

"Why have you come back?"
The father asks with bittered rage,
"Haven't you done enough to us?"
Words stolen from an ancient page.

"You are not one of this family!
Nor will you ever for what you did,
It's your fault that he died,
A shameful act from which you hid."

A man throws a punch at my face,
I swerve away from the assault,
Pushing him back amongst the crowd,
Never denying it was my fault.

"I was a stupid young teen,
So was the son that you mourn,
Yet rather than reach out to me,
You poured upon your scorn.

You think I wanted this to be?
To be jeered as I came home?
Five years I stayed away,
Unsupported, living alone."

" Get out of my sight you scum!"
He yells while swinging for my head,
"You destroyed our family life,
Why couldn't it be you who's dead?"

Anger pushes me over the edge,
I kick the fool to his knees,
"I wanted to ask your forgiveness,
But my words were always vacant pleas.

So I'll go again my father,
I'll walk away like a good boy,
You can pretend I was never your own,
Discarded like a broken toy.

But none of this will bring him back,
He'd never wish you'd stoop so low,
Enjoy the party all you fools,
But remember, reap what you sow."

They say that all works out in the end,
That the ending will be a happy one,
Who are they trying to kid?
Ask this exiled and forgotten son...