DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - GRACING UNDER PAIN by OLATILEWA AKINTUYI

SAY NO to DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

GRACING UNDER PAIN 

  

Every time and almost every day I watched my mother cry for him,
She was his wife, his sister, his friend and all that you may think about,

She was a mother to me and my siblings also,

He would label her with gruesome words,

Decorate her with bruises,

He would trample her self esteem each and every day,

The verbal abuse was just the stepping stone of the physical and the emotional torture,

Still she stayed a sweet soul,

I told my Ma to leave,

She was to live to tell her story,

To reject this abuse for the sunrise of a better tomorrow,

To awaken to enjoy what she toiled for in us,

But my dear Ma didn't believe she was too good for him,

And each day and night he would beat her to stupor,

She wouldn't cry alone because every day I would cry with her,

I would wonder why such a loving soul would marry the son of the DEVIL,

And every night he would plead,

And my Ma would give excuses for him,

Over and over again she gave excuses for this abuse of a husband,

She gave excuses for this son of a gun, 

She laid down her life on the altar of love for the wrong person,

She was a great mother to us and to him,

But he kept neglecting her,

My mother's emotional bank account was not only overdrawn,

It was already an eternally bad debt,

The problem was unlike no other institution,

The marriage couldn't help to write off this bad debt of the emotions,

And yea! My mother not only did domestic chores, she also helped out with official assignments,

When it came to him my mother always found the strength she never believed she had,

And still he cheated,

He didn't only cheat on her physically,

He cheated materially,

He cheated emotionally,

He cheated in all ways possible,

Still my mother covered up his flaws,

No one knew he had excesses,

A wolf in sheep's clothing

To the world, he was the best husband and the best father,

To the world, he was one of the best engineers around,

How could a man have different personalities per time,

He was a saint to the outside world,

He was worse that the devil at home,

Yet I told my mama to leave,

She was so beautiful even with the extra beauty brought on her by the beating,

She was so strong despite her strained emotional bank account.

Unfortunately, my Ma never got the strength to leave, 

She never faced the reality of a shattered dream,

And as I write....my mother is dying...

Dying from the pain the son of the devil caused, just because she loves him too much to leave.

OLATILEWA AKINTUYI

Olatilewa