A friend of mine wrote this in honor of her sister, a survivor.
It was young love and they totally ‘got’ each other
They both had so much promise
they both had so much talent
Passionate, funny and they just worked
They married and started their family
They were living the dream, but living well isn’t always easy
Money was a struggle, jobs sometimes were scarce
A couple of mouths to feed
Dreams to keep chasing
The tension sometimes mounted
Life was good and hard and intense…and then one strayed
When he failed he wounded her heart
it burned deep and dark
and things got rough
She was angry
He was angry
That canyon between them kept getting deeper, wider
Their communication grew more twisted and wounding
She wanted her family
he wanted his family
but things were all shattered now
He wanted his dreams back
but she was far from him
and he couldn’t control that
Angry bursts
Crippling words
Ruined furniture
Bullied Mommy
Terrified children
Before long she was fleeing and hiding
The little ones never wanted to see Daddy again because they saw what Daddy did to Mommy
They remember what Daddy did to them
Little children in shelters
Mommy scared to be found
scared that given the opportunity
the desperate threats
would become devastating reality
Running…. for a long time
Shamed and devastated for much longer
Wishing only scars remained to tell the story
But these have wounds never found the way to heal