Sunday Scribbling " Scary"

Sunday Scribbling prompt this week is " Scary"
An incident last weekend, along with a disturbing newspaper article about a man appealing his conviction for doing away with his wife provoked this poem, and painting. It's been a work in progress all week. Originally I felt it slightly too dark to post during Easter, a celebration of renewal. However I changed my mind when the Sunday Scribbling inquiry of what scares us seemed to mesh with these pieces.

Shattered Acrylic on Canvas

When the mad wouldn’t go away

I remember the kind of mad

When she pulled my hair

Repeatedly

Because I sassed her

I remember the kind of mad

When she attempted

To whack me

Missed

Hit the cupboards

And broke a blood vessel

I remember the kind of mad

When I was young teen

Smacked across the face

While trying to break it off

With a suitor

I remember the kind of mad

When a speeding ticket

My spouse received in the mail

Was provocation

To choke me

Then put a fist

Through the kitchen wall

I remember the kind of mad

Where a drunk husband

Screamed obscenities

Terrified his six month pregnant wife

Punching and grabbing

her right arm

Fixed on the gear shift

I remember the kind of mad

That comes from nowhere

When a new mother

runs to seek refuge

with a neighbor

She barely knows

Escaping vile hands

Grappling her throat

While her child

Sleeps down the hall

I remember the kind of mad

Where ostensibly quiet woman

Bellows shattering accusations

Escalating into a tirade

On an unsuspecting

Grieving relative

I remember the kind of mad

Where a drunken sibling

Rants untruths

In a populated

Public arena

While others

Observe with pity

I remember the kind of mad

That ends things forever

With a blow to the head

A kick to the stomach

Barrage of harassment

Fear of death in a

Frenetic existence

When the mad

Just wouldn’t

Go away