Battered

She goes about her busy day

Doing her errands without delay

Everyone sees her as shy

So they respectfully don’t pry

Never one to put on wiles

She returns their smiles

Kindly, she returns each hello

While declining invitations, though

Sadly, not one calls her a friend

Because she rushes home at day's end

🥀

But there is a truth she is trying to hide

With make-up, she’s carefully applied

Wearing clothes that drape just so

She hopes that no one will know

What her dark sunglasses conceal

Ashamed to tell what’s happening for real

She withdraws into herself

And quickly loses her sense of self

Cringing when he is near

She lives in constant fear

🥀

Trepidation

Intimidation

She answers to him for everything

While he’ll punish her for anything

Alienation

Isolation

She's left all alone, with nowhere to turn

He’s spending money like he has it to burn

She’s under his control

Leaving him is her only goal

🥀

It’s a game of cat and mouse

Her prison has become the house

She wears the bruises

He’s the one who abuses

Her suffering is silent

To her pain, he is indifferent

All this she hides inside

Never to show on the outside

No one must ever know

Her humiliation must never show

🥀

So she wears a face that’s not hers

Hoping no one sees what occurs

Too ashamed for others to see

Wishing he would just let her be

She piles on the make-up

Making protective lies up

It’ll be sink or swim

One day, she’ll leave him

Either in a wooden box

Or in nothing but her socks

🥀