Much to Everyone's Consternation

abandoned by my parents

raised by vultures on the streets

worn thin by odious brutes who

made my body their play thing

as they knew they could

 

beaten with destroying words

by a maggot husband

(I would prefer he had struck me

then I would have understood)

my son fled his father’s fury

I could not save my daughter

from the same fate as my own

 

a woman’s place is no place

her voice reticent and failed

for fear her captors will retaliate

with the back of their hand

a discarded rag soaked through

with sweat, blood, and semen

 

so with my death, I circumvent all

taking my own life before they can

pick my bones clean like hyenas

it matters not my body has ceased

much to everyone’s consternation

I am alive and well