One sad eye,
    the other swollen and purple.
"He hits me," she admitted.

Inside he felt the shift:
    suspicion to certainty,
and then, in another second,
    from certainty to chivalry:
"Leave him," he blurted.

    Weak smile:
"Not that easy."

Further shift:
    chivalry to anger,
heat rising, mind cranking;
    he knew someone, would call,
be the knight…

    "Don't make it worse."

She was so calm.
    Why so calm?

"This is news to you,"
    she continued.
"I've lived it, known it.
    One can't escape.
It's so complicated."

    Yes he knew, had read,
but now it was across the table,
    now it came close as a colleague,
a friend, a part of him.

    "Don't surrender,"
he said.

    Don't give me hope,
she thought.

Text and image © 2015 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.