Who knew he was a wife beater?
Who knew she would
have the strength to fight back?
Never had she committed a crime..
Not even when in mortal fear..
She tried to get help from the courts..
But who are we kidding here..
She heard of these woman 
Dead in the ground..
Because when they needed protecting
The courts could not be found..
The paper she filed for was a joke..
How was it to protect her
with his hands around her throat?
So she doesn't bother running..
She has tried so many times..
She knows he'll just follow her..
he always hunts her down....
Threatening to kill her
And all that she loves..
If she doesn't come back
Right now!!
And out of fear
She does..
What the hell do you expect?
She was not raised to fight..
To fight the very person
she vowed to love for life..
She was so shocked
the first time his fist
hit her face..
Living in a silent hell..
Always hiding in her shell..
Filled with guilt and disgrace..
Then after many years..
Of beatings
Isolation..
Loneliness
Desperation
Excommunication
from her mind..
She killed him
For freedom..
She killed him
for life..
No longer was she
his wife..
She now has her
Independence
To think
To feel
To be..
Locked up in this prison..
Now her sanctuary..
She worries for
her children..
Scattered from
home to home..
She prays they do not
hate her..
For taking the life of
their Dad..
She prays that they see..
Life is NOTHING
Unless your free.
Free to learn..
Free to think..
Free from fear..
No more bloody image
In the mirror..
They say evil is
As evil does..
She wonders ..
If this is her..
Could she have lived
through the beating?
One more day..
Guess she will never know..
He is gone now..
In the grave..
And she DOES feel guilty..
After all she was his wife..
But then she knows
It was her children's
Only chance at life.
She thinks all these thoughts..
In her dark tiny cell..
Letting her mind wander..
In a safer place in hell..



ERICA IVORY