Maudlin Melody Poem by Sai Killam

It’s cold in the shadows; she doesn’t want to be found,
She'll hold her breath, silence her cries and make not a sound,
But she’ll be seen, and beaten once more,
And he’ll leave her bruised and bleeding on the floor.

She wears her breaks inside and out, always hides them from sight,
No one can see the marks and scars that multiply overnight,
And her lies are so convincing, so I guess nobody knows,
About every single bruise hiding beneath her clothes.

The lies she spins are her verbal prison, keeping her from freedom,
And she’ll never get away, she’ll never be free, because she does it all for him,
He swears that he loves her, he won’t do it again, but tomorrow there’ll be another accident,
And she’ll foolishly take his word for it again and again, believing his dishonest statements.

Finally she’ll get enough of black-eyes followed by, “I love you, ” and want to get away,
But she’ll quickly find there’s nothing she can do, when he stops her every step of the way,
The days will get worse and worse, her happiness slipping between her fingers like sand,
And on her final day, she’ll take the sharpest kitchen knife she can find in her fragile hand.

And she’ll stab him six times in the stomach, and ten times in the chest,
And she’ll scream and cry at him every word she ever repressed,
Because he deserves this, for making her bleed, and now he’ll pay the price for all of it,
But she really loved him, and doesn’t want to be apart, so she takes the knife, and makes two slits.

Now her wrists are slit, her hair unkempt, there’s blood between her toes,
Her tears are fresh, her blood is warm, and from her veins it flows,
“My life is ending, ” she weeps and sighs, lying by his side, “I finally fall...”
And in the end the bruises will tell the story of why she did it, why she ended it all.