In the stories you don't tell
Is one of a child's living hell
Outside driving snow and wind
Inside the screams did not end
Dad was beating Mom again
My sister and I could only hide
"Leave Mom alone we cried!"
And then we knew he threw her outside
Then a knocking on our window undefined
Mom was in the snow wearing not a stitch
Slippers and blankets and on came the switch
"You give her those blankets you'll be outside too!"
And I knew the beating was coming as I threw
Mom made it dashing to the neighbors house
The cops came took away that Monster louse
I was seven and this poem--it's true
And I hated that man each day I grew
I knew I would be big enough to make him pay
But when the gun misfired he ran away
More than Mom the kids suffered that day
My father--years later they say died in a house fire
An angel added fuel as the flames went higher
Remember the children in spousal abuse. This is
not a made up poem. There was a foot of snow outside
When dad was beating my Mom. The irony he was accusing
her of cheating on him because he always cheated on her.
He tossed her outside stripping her of clothing.
She didn't want to go to the neighbors house nude.
We threw her blankets and slippers out the window.
The police came took him away. We always feared and I
prepared for the day he would return. When he did I
was older held a gun. That it misfired he wouldn't
know the coward ran. I would have thrown the gun away
and done it with my fist. I drove to Oregon for his
funeral. Mom had died of Cancer. I oddly was the only
son. I don't even know what it was I signed the Estate
away.I wouldn't allow he was ever part of me.