ABUSER

Dedicated to Cindi, and all those who suffer in the shadows...with deepest compassion.

If the sun was a man, he could be your kinder twin.
Both of you possess the power to caress
with your warmth - or to incinerate with impunity.
Both of you dazzle. But his warmth
lifts my spirits, whereas yours masks an appalling ferocity.

Your first kiss branded my soul. But then your possessiveness
imprisoned me in a merry-go-round of degradation.
There is no escaping a serial abuser
once he has groomed his chosen victim.
Oh why can I not stop loving you?

I'm aware that the sun, too, can sometimes scorch,
but at nighttime he is powerless - unlike your kind of torture.
That cremates me with relentless continuity.
Day and night I am mentally and physically broken.
Sometimes, even death would be a welcome release.

Nowhere is safe from your sadistic corona. It's searing strands
would find me on the far side of the Universe,
like the grotesque telescopic tentacles
of some fiery alien Medusa.
I am burning...burning...eternally burning

in your brutal, terror-ridden hell...