For Fayth, Who Endures

Today's topic is sobering, but vitally important.

According to National Domestic Violence Hotline statistics, in the U.S. alone:

• 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period.
  

• On the average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.

• As many as 324,000 women each year experience intimate partner violence during their pregnancy.
  

If you (or someone you know) is living in danger of domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) or call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Links are available for callers outside the U.S.

Here is a story from a friend. Perhaps you know someone in a similar situation. According to statistics, chances are you do.

For Fayth, Who Endures -
A Poetic Lament on Spousal Abuse

Incarceration is a curse,
A sentence set for life;
Resolved for better or for worse
When I became his wife.

At any stage, with gleeful rage,
He'll toss away my treasure -
Constructing thus a careful cage,
My misery, his pleasure.

With verbal blows, he robs my soul
Of gladness and ambition.
Profanely, he assumes control
And battles my conviction.

In barracks built of brutal words,
Of broken promises and drink,
I shudder with each slamming door
And dance upon the brink.

My flesh, his passion, lures him;
He preys upon the scent.
For, having tasted of my blood,
Desire is never spent.

He pounds the walls and storms the halls
With fury in his breath.
We're bound together, not forever,
Only till our death.

I built a tower for my heart.
The lock contains no key.
Though all the world be shut outside,
The beast cannot reach me.

Enflamed, he roars, and pounds the door;
His violence leaves its mark.
And though he breaks it daily,
He'll never have my heart.

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