The first time
I fell to the floor. Drops of blood
And then the rain. I felt my heart—
Ungainly thing, like a fat crow that perches on a wire
To watch the rabbit cross the road
In peril.

Up close
His hand is not a monstrous thing;
It does not wait for me beneath the mattress
When all the darkness all the light consumes.

He cares too much, she says,
Her black eye peers through curtains at the moon.
A fall she took, another accident.

For now
He comes at night.
The staircase groans
With steps that snarl, words that slur—
I hear his footfall pounding in my chest.
Closer comes the touch that wounds,
To wring the blood from lip and cheek,
The very things of kisses.

Tonight I am every bad thing in the world;
He comes to slay every man’s worst habit.

But one day
I will leave this wretched place
And find a hearth where all is warm and safe,
And blow my candles out on birthday cakes.