Poems on Intimate Partner Violence by Laura Calix

“The Dark”

In the dark I felt your hands of pleasure become hands of pain

You killed me over and over, again and again

To the brink you brought me, Your hateful hands around my neck

Fingers clenched until the world faded to black

You used my body to vent the day’s frustrations, all your rage

Maybe you were hoping I would fight back, that I would engage

But I lay still, hoping your anger might subside

Hoping you might notice my limp body and let go

That you might think I had died.

Perhaps if I opened my eyes and looked deep into his

He might be reminded of love

But did it ever exist?

On the brink he’d bring me back

He’d let me live another day

But I remained in the dark

I couldn’t see another way

“Love By Numbers” (free verse)

20 years ago I met you

Flowers

Promises

Smothering

7 years of your violence

Hugs to shoves

Kisses to bites

Holding hands to holding me down

8 ½ years your sentence

Free room and board

3 meals a day

Threatening collect calls

Crime and punishment,

justice system at its finest

5 years since your release

Looking over my shoulder

Self Defense classes

Paranoia

No bars, no guards,

just pulp derived from wood, that’s my bulletproof vest

To stop your glock 40, as you say, from hitting my chest

“The Four Elements” (free verse)

Water

Amidst the once washed away and drowning spirit,

how cleansing are her tears

Fire

The burning, smoldering heart almost turning to ashes,

Yet rekindled by flames that rise from within

Air

The stolen air that escaped her body,

she now draws the breath of life and is renewed within each breath

Earth

Nearly lost to the darkness of the terrestrial void

Resurrected, she thrives, enriched by the earth

*All poems were written by Laura Calix.