I have to hurry home and prepare dinner tonight

I have to finish my cleaning or else it’s another fight

I’ve still much to do: the laundry, the dishes, the dusting, washing the stains off the floor

I’ve no longer any spare time to spend with my friends anymore

He has his associates coming over to discuss this new plan

And although I can’t understand it I must be there to support my man

 

The guests have arrived just in time for the feast

Stopping in the middle of setting the table to answer the door with polite smiles and greets

They dined, they laughed, and he told me if anyone needed anything that he’d give me a call

So I sat in the kitchen patiently waiting to see if I was needed at all

After hours of business talk they drank wine and watched a little TV

While I was clearing the table quickly so no one would see me

He smiled and nodded that I was doing fine

A grin came to my face as I thought to myself “I’m getting praised by this man of mine”

As the men were becoming tipsy I brought to them water

So when they left for home they wouldn’t totter

I swept the floor, cleaned the table, finished off the dishes and put away the leftover pie

He wanted copulation, but I was too tired and for this I got a broken rib and a black eye

 

Nothing so bad and by morning he had left with an apology and smile off to work

While I went to get bandaged at a local clinic, the chores I had to shirk

I didn’t know the paperwork would take so long

I had no better excuse for him when I came home and for this I got a broken nose and fractured arm

I cleaned up the blood I spilled hurriedly

After he took his leave

Finished all of the chores and applied makeup on my scars and face before I went back to the doctor

He asked if I had been abused and told me that I should check into a program or shelter

I waited for him to bandage me, prescribe my medicines and walked out from his door

“I’m not a battered woman,” I told him and walked to the nearest grocery store

I told myself “no one loves and understands him like I can”

“He’s just overworked, stressed, and tired” and with his favorite dishes in my bag I headed home again