My House Fell In

A poetic monologue about domestic abuse.

My House Fell In

It seems it began with a fallen teacup,

but Doctor dear, I rather think it began before…

 

You see, I awoke in a very awkward sort of state,

I was bound up in my sheets so tight I thought

I might choke from the stench of sweat and tears.

I felt so near to strangling to death I was convinced

I had been locked up in a cotton coffin for years.

 

Disheveled, I roused myself and set to making coffee,

(I also wolfed the last slice of toffee pecan cake before

 he got up and ate it for himself). I picked up our cat,

and sat down on our beat-up couch, at which point he plops

beside me, smelling quite stale in a naked display of fat.

 

He can’t see me from that particular corner of the couch,

the television shuts off his peripheral view. And for the

first time it didn’t irritate me, I was free to stare unseen.

I’m sure my disgust lay plainly on my face at the wiry

hairs, cereal bits ensnared, grottos stinking and waxy.

 

I cringed at the pudgy lips dangling above his belt,

and the protrusion of moles on his hairless chest.

I averted my eyes in time to see a dancing teacup

on a greasy stack of chores. He didn’t seem to notice,

so I didn’t bother to ask……... I hate the “shut ups”.

 

Now this is the part where it all gets a little weird,

please don’t think I’m crazy- though I’m aware he does.

You see, the walls began to shake. I know because the frames

all swayed, and the lights flickered, and then there was a cascade

of porcelain and glass in the kitchen and nails blew from the studs…

 

The floor was trembling so violently all I could do was gulp my

coffee in shock, wide eyes fixated on the fine wheedling cracks

in the walls. I heard a sound so horrible, it grated on my ears

like a woman’s scream, which is when a hole yawned before me

and spit my end of the couch right out on the front lawn.

 

I could see the dust settling through the panes in the front door,

and in the reflection, I could see where I sat and where I sat

before. The television glow danced on his face, blending him

into the blue-green paint. My opening was onto sweet dew grass,

and silent, star-speckled streets, but then I awoke

           in twisted cotton sheets.