Alcoholic's Wife

I am a married woman,
Yet I sleep alone.
I am tired and lost,

Bewildered and morose!

Evenings bring great fear,

My heart drops to the floor,
I sense thunder and lightning,

I am an alcoholic’s wife!

He brings out the bottle,

I blend into the wall.

For it is dangerous,

Dangerous, to be visible!

It rained,how it poured!

Violent psychedelic were the lights,

Or was it in my eyes alone?

I swooned in the flood.

The dinner lay in shambles,

Cold, uneaten, in the casserole.

I really didn’t put in an effort,

I was too nervous to cook!

Stealthily I climb the stairs,

Let not the sleeping monster wake.

I lock my bedroom door tight,

As I fear for my life!

I wake up with a start

To thumps and kicks,yells and dirty words,

Oh, the monster has reached,

Reached by my door!

I huddle in a corner

My eyes on the door,

Hoping the wood would truly hold

Hold for just this one day more!

The cycle doesn’t end there,

It repeats every night.

Oh, where is deliverance?

I am an alcoholic’s wife!

I have no real friends,

Relatives know not the real me!

As all they ever see

Is just the masked me!

All lies; just a show,

The secrets pile up.

As I struggle to conceal the scars,

The red taking time to turn brown!

I have no present

No past

No future

I long for escape!

He no longer lives here

He is in rehab

The world recedes from me

I live all alone

Help me,

Look at me!

I am an alcoholic’s wife!

I stand here before you,

I am desperate for life!