Your Silence Killed Me
I wish you had said something,
Anything at all.
I wish you didn’t just stand there
Looking like a helpless slave.
Mom, you watched him.
You watched him beat me to a pulp.
You watched him break me to crumbs.
And you just stood there,
Crouched behind the door like a scared puppy.
Do you know how many nights I stayed awake
Wishing someone would come to save me from him?
I wished you were that someone, mom.
I waited for you to be that someone.
Oh! How I wished years ago, you had this so-called courage you speak of now in all your books.
20 years later, you’ve become a force
A mentor for women suffering domestic abuse.
Everyone now looks up to you,
“The brave woman who got out.”
You may have gotten out, but I didn’t.
I haven’t.
I still see his face every night in my dreams
Whipping and cutting me with his black belt.
