The screaming was always too close,
Face to face while she froze,
Walls of numb protecting vital organs
While the bitter spit showered her –
Hurricane of rage –
As he released his fury upon
Her most fragile self.

It didn’t happen often.
Months would go by
Without a hint of danger,
And there were happier memories,
So that years later,
She doesn’t understand how all that remains
Are the waves of rage
So tall and deep that even now she still gasps
Hands that would wrap around her throat,
Gesture of death though she was not killed.

Today she is in a happy relationship.
But even happy people have disagreements.
Only, in her case,
They become twists of some
Post traumatic event,
And she runs to hide,
Hypersensitive to the threat of that
Negative force from long ago –
Even though she realizes it’s not the same.

All these years later,
She finds herself taken aback that
Both of them pay
For the screaming that came from his lips,
The threat of his intentions,
Though but a phantom of
Her reality which once was
Laced with vows to care and cherish.

She wonders when the balance will return
And hopes the scales are righted in time.

03/25/2007

Posted on 03/26/2007
Copyright © 2024 Alison McKenzie