Eyes wide

The air was dry

The tension high

That living room became a place

Of surprise

 

My mom had called the night before

Crying,

Her partner,

Who was clearly a bad man

Was crossing lines that should

Never be crossed

 

And my mom,

Who after decades of difficulty

Has become of the strongest people

For the first time I saw her

In fear for her life

 

And so my fear came with it

That she would be hurt

By someone who claimed to love her

 

And so,

Something had to be done

No if’s or but’s

No more staying,

No more compromising

With he who would not compromise

 

Someone had to lay a stop to this madness

And perhaps that one was me

 

My sister, always polite

Shy as a mouse

Is strong in other ways,

Ways that I am not

But in this situation her soft words

Simply did not help

 

Never having dealt

With a savage man like this

One of the surprises was not that she was scared

I should’ve been too

But I stood

With my feet firmly on the ground

The soft carpet,

Staring at a man with harm in his heart

He scoffed at me

Scoffed at my power to do anything

Thinking I’d do nothing

 

But lo and behold!

How wrong he was

Unlike my sister, I am more of a snake

Careful,

But with a sharp tongue

 

And I was not afraid!

Although maybe I was supposed to be

There was no time to be

 

I knew that he could hurt me

But I needed him to know

That he as not as untouchable

As he previously thought he was

 

The end of his power trip

Had arrived with me

And as I stared at him, with intense

Unwavering stare

Of great distaste

And of great disappointment

He knew I meant it when I said

“I won’t let you hurt her anymore”

 

My mom remained quiet as I spoke

 

An irrational man he was,

I would not be so shocked

If he had hurt me

But it was of those situations

Of danger

Where fear is simply put aside

For love