Early Life and My Mom

My early life and how my mom helped...

From the time I was young,

I used to watch daddy beat you.

He would make every day miserable,

Forming bruises on your arms.

 

He would put you down,

Hurt you and leave you alone.

I always wished that I could do something,

Yet he was strong and I was weak.

 

I hated to see you hurt.

I hated to see you beat down.

I couldn't help you, though.

I was scared that daddy would hurt me.

 

You stayed with him through the abuse,

Hoping that you could change him.

You couldn't change him, though.

No one could.

 

You finally left him after 15 years,

After giving up on changing him.

I was 10, my sisters 7 and 4.

We were scared and didn't know what to do.

 

The abuse of him didn't stop there.

I reminded him too much of you.

He would put me down and beat me.,

Make me feel like nothing.

 

 

He would call me fat and

Hurt me more than you know.

When we would fight,

He would sometimes get physical.

 

He would tackle and pin me,

Screaming at my face.

Making me scared of what would come.

One day, I finally fought back.

 

It was my 11th birthday,

We fought and I hit him because

I was scared of being hurt.

My present was going to the police station.

 

I still am scared of him,

Yet my fear has gone down.

I am no longer afraid to fight back.

You gave me the strength to do it, Mama.

 

I thank you for that.

I am proud of myself for being strong.

Because now, I am strong

Just like you.

 

 

Author's Note

True comments please

Reviews

[Leslie Philibert]

I really hope that what you write is not based on your real life, domestic violence is nowadays in no way to be tolerated, guys who abuse women and children deserve to be put away immediately.I think you write about the ambivalence, tension and bonding in families very well, a good poem about a difficult subject.

[joshua deathdealer]

Such a sad tale.. Very real but quite sad.