Never get involved in a domestic dispute they say, a poem for c/c/?

Question

His mouth opens wide and a sword
comes out.
How can this be?  At first she is
disbelieving.
But then, she sees he really means 
these hard. cruel words.
You can't work, how can you even sit here
night after night asking me if there is not
some little thing you could do?
She is attacked and powerless because the words
are from the one she loves most in this world.
She crumbles, but it is not enough to dampen
this dragon he has become.
Look at you!  You are crying and you are right here
at home.
What would you do in a workplace? Sob
every time someone looked cross eyed at you?
Oh the words are hard.
She hasn't felt this in years, this being afraid for
herself.
He is fed up and snaps I am going to bed.
She cries in her chair a while.
Then thinks of her shoes.
I could just put my shoes on
and walk away.
She passes through the bedroom,
he is snoring.
Snoring when she has been twisting her face in shame and tears.
She puts the shoes on, slips out the door,
and begins walking.
She knows she is not in her right mind, but doesn't care,
keeps walking.
But then, she sees a light.
She thinks it is the Moon and walks eagerly toward it,
I need the Moon,
it will show me what to do!
She begins to trot a bit. get closer
and then, the Moon is there.
And she sees through her tears and spittle,
it is just a streetlight in a neighbor's yard.
She turns around slow
and heads back home.
Her sadness is so great she hums a little tune,
slightly off-key.
She walks in the room, slips her shoes off.
He is still snoring, never even woke,
and she lived a lifetime between then
and now.

- · Accepted Answer

Damn your pen!  You've done it again!  I swear, you rip my heart out!
You say never get involved in a domestic dispute, so I'll not offer my advice, though I have lots to say!!!!
So, back to the write...powerful, perfectly expressed, you gave it a beginning, a middle and an end, a poignant end.

You're so good, Beth, so very talented.  I wish I could look you in the eyes and tell you that until it sinks in and you believe it.  Remember my eyes?  The ones you wanted to sketch?  Look at them and listen to me!

Love you

adeline_cosine · Answer

Incredibly written and powerful. The scene is dead-on honest and cold and heart-breakingly wretched.

The moon that gives her a destination is just make-shift light too near to be far enough away to lead.

"Her sadness is so great she hums a little tune"... I've known this. I've done this. Yet I've never recognized the wrenching contradiction. I think the mind unconsciously seeks solace in soft rhythm and old nursery songs. 

He never even woke "and she lived a lifetime between then and now." This ending hits the reader like a freight train bearing down silently. So much said in so few words.

The only line that threw me off was at the beginning -- "His mouth opens wide and a sword comes out." Maybe "comes out" is too passive, because he is already using it as a weapon to cut and wound. He is later described as a dragon, but swords kill dragons... 

Perhaps "a dagger lashes out." 
"a knife slashes deep."

"His mouth opens wide and he slashes
with fire"

Just brain-storming. It works the way it is, and is a compelling image of a hidden weapon and a simile for a venomous forked tongue... 

I'm just saying that is the only line in the whole poem that threw me off.

Caz :) x · Answer

Beth , Listen.. I read this poem the message is vivid It speaks to me and I thought I was the only one feeling this kind of sadness this sense of nothingness .. A healthy self- esteem is essential for your own happiness . Men do not need the same things as woman , some men show very little affection,
I really can not understand them they live in there caves and sometimes come out and hold you and that's all you really need .. it's not a hard thing to do but it would  mean the word to us woman :) 

what a brave and wonderful women you are Beth , you have such a Great big heart you need a heart that marchers yours... Love you x  Keep you self impotent , you no your Beautiful in mind and looks :)
  He knows it , he just cant show it .. give him lots of attention and lots of love and see what he dose .

 If he does nothing , you got to get out of that place if it the last thing you ever do   :) :)

lovechild · Answer

OMG Beth- I have lived this exact nightmare more times than I care to count, and where pray tell, I thought I could have gone anyway, i have no self, am no one to say I am anything, my god I have to change this state of being and I am in flux between failure and success, I am not quite myself but then how can I be if I need to change, is what I start to think and then i think: but I was always a good girl, in bad situations, I always held on to certain moral and logical frameworks, which might have appeared to others differently- but they say that appearances do not matter. You know what I think? I think they lie. Maybe not with bad intentions- but they lie. I am ok. I am NOT ok. How can I be ok? NOTHING else in the world, or my life is ok. OMG. thank you for this beth<3

? · Answer

A powerful poem that I read as a narrative.  It is very solid, it hits me between the eyes.  The sad thing is sometimes we don't know the power of the words or hurtfulness until later and possibly with some words not ever.

(((Hugs))) to you Beth.  I know you are a very strong person, but I hope you don't need that strength.

? · Answer

I would rather get involved in a land war in Asia that handle a domestic dispute
the odds are better in Asia of a settlement
great Poem Beth

? · Answer

She has to get the hell out of there.  First, she needs a place to go...

? · Answer

Beth, I was totally captivated.
...believe in yourself
hold our hands...

5 ft 7 Texas Heaven · Answer

YIKES! This is so hard hittin, but so relative to what is so often hidden. Holy cow.  How deep does our givin up have to go?

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Never get involved in a domestic dispute they say, a poem for c/c/?

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