There is a violence expressed here by one who recognizes it and the tragedy therein. Your poem is forceful and impacts the psyche, jolting me from my complacense.

I think it's a true travesty when men don't give the true respect and honor to their women...and fail to love them the way God truly loves us. Completely. I Corinthians 13 says it best. Aloha to you and yours from out here under the swaying palms... alisa ;-)

You have found beauty here under the harsh subject matter.

I read this over and over again and each time it gets better. You manage to touch on the cold harsh reality and break through the glass-layered shield we all put between reality and ourselves. This is true poetry, lovely to read and underlying meaning to expose one's attitude and feelings to the reality of life. I really liked the lines: Outer beauty claims no power/when only shaft and thorns remain. Splendid work, my friend.

I love this oyster and the scintillating metaphor housed therein. However, I think this poem is a fuse inviting ignition and sparking the light sufficient to examine the potential that abuse and degradation can be heaped upon the petals which men are as equally and as brutally, by what is perceived, the fairer sex. In my estimation, it is not a specific gender which coins a phrase or corners the market on abuse, but abuse is gender exclusive, and relies rather on content and character than sex. And given opportunities, women can heap such as well as men. And what is an ode, but it is an oyster, inviting one to shuck and examine the pearly illumination within and without oneself as this one has done for me. And congratulations on POTD.