“I hate you. I wish that you were dead”.
The words grow huge, stretch away from her
Like the credits on a Hollywood film
They distort, make pathways until they make no sense
Disappear, leaving a clanging, jarring echo

She watches him as he rages
The scalding tears, the balled fists
He careers around the room kicking out his impotent anger
Wanting, really, to kick her, hurt her, make her suffer

He makes her suffer

She holds tightly to the newel post
In her head she feels anger, resentment, pain
She fights the bitter words, swallows them sourly down
She wants to scream at him, hold his face in her hands and spit the words into his eyes
Don’t you know, she wants to say. Don’t you know

He doesn’t know

So she watches him, this fiend, this fury, her son
While love pours out through her skin
Rolls in sweat down her spine
Lifts her hair from her scalp
Presses in a band around her heart
Till she gasps for breath

She holds tightly to the newel post
She watches him and she waits.