Cruel - biting words,
A push becomes a shove:
"Oh my darling, I'm so sorry,
I swear it will never happen again,"
A slap becomes a blow.
He wears his deceitful love
as a coward's cloak,
A hollow guarantor.
The haunting sound of a woman's tears
Her heart and body left broken by
An empty promise,
Alone she weeps -
isolation to mask the unspeakable truth.
She lives here in this dark place
Where even simple words are dangerous
and thoughts are forbidden things.
Tears are born,
Blood runs down her face,
She has no voice,
Fear holds her captive,
misery binds her soul.
Desperate pleas fall on ears
deafened by rage.
Drowning in an agony delivered
by hands - hardened as to steel.
He places culpability on her alone,
The cycle of violence renewed once more.
He strikes again and again
Until the darkness appears.
Will this be the time she
doesn't live to tell?
To lie, to make the excuses...
To forgive yet again?
Genuine love holds no cost;
this cannot be love at all.
The only hope is liberation.
My sisters you are not alone:
Phone 1-800-799-SAFE
National Domestic Violence Hotline.©1999 by Rachel Traughber; all rights reserved
