Waking up 30 years
Later
With a fist
In my face
After being threaten
With a lead pipe
Across the head
That's what domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Shaking with convulsions
Filled with fear
Remembering how
I said I would
Rot in prison
Before you would
Ever throw one of
My babies
Off the stairs
Kicking them mercilessly
For not getting dressed
Fast enough
At 18 months old
That's what domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Looking at that
Big strong son
You attempted to murder
By kicking me in the gut
As hard as you could
When I was 5 months
Along
With him in my belly
Who doesn't remember now
That's what domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Listening to another son
Not of my loins
Talk about how he was
Kicked
How his mom was beat
Pistol whipped
With his half brother
In her arms
Only 9 days old
Is all apart of
What domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Where it's a never-ending
Nightmare
Like in the dream
Just woke up to
Here safe in my own
Living room
Like being shell-shocked
Wanting to scream
Where the pain
From the words and the threats
And the hits and the kicks
And the attempts at murdering
Your own flesh and blood come
Back like a thief
In the night
Taking me there
To a curled up ball
Of flesh awaiting the
Rape
In silence
That's what domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Thirty years later
In bad dreams
The mind lets go
That's what domestic
Violence
Does to me.
Domestic Violence
Will do it to you too
Get out!
So you don't know domestic
Violence
Like I know domestic
Violence.
