devil by the day
BY DESTINY GLADYS CHAIGA
Cursed in lockdown
My heart burdened with your presence
A company once upon a time so anticipated Now dreaded with each footstep closer
Caresses once a craving
Now a repulsion of manhandling
Sweet whispers once yearned for
Now a loathsome insurgency
You have become a devil by the day
Battered physical
But this bleeding heart
Tears piece by piece daily
Rots bit by bit occasionally
Faints part by part momentarily
The stink of love turned hate within
Subdues the shredded piece of me
Hidden underneath your fingernails
Coated on your flogging twig
Caked on your whipping floor I call home These pieces of my echoing voice
In these walls are a memorial theatre
Of protection turned violence
You are a devil by the day.
An inferior gender you call me
With liquor lingering breath
Whisky you expect me to kiss
Brush the remnants of a thousand whores off your lips With kisses of matrimonial loyalty
You are a stranger to this safe haven;
An escape I once called our love nest
Bring back my beloved
For you are a devil with each passing day.
What is domestic
About the lightning slaps that blind my vision
The chocking grasp of your hand on my neck
The bullish knees pinned on my chest
The claws ripping off my scalp
The feet kicking me about near lifeless
The scoffs taunting my soul
What more is domestic
About the nightmare I call a home!
You are a devil by the day
You have grown spiteful
like some of your kinsmen
Choking my sisters with their bare hands
One was hanged in her conjugal bedchamber
The other chopped, packaged in sacks in pantry for dumping Her children’s throat slit like chicken for feasting Others raped ripped apart in the open
Day in day out,
Our eyes frightened for the lingering doom
Within our households
Who will protect the wives if not husbands?
Yet they are becoming devils by the day.
Happiness shifted homes
Camped at my neighbors on the right
I hear her jiggles
I see her glow
I feel her oomph
I could catch a fading glimpse
I could hear waning echoes
Of who I was and hope to be
Away from my protector turned tormentor
Away from domestic violence
There is hope as long as alive
For he is a devil by the day.
Stay for your kids
Stay for your marriage
Stay for your parents’ honor
Stay for the church name
Stay he will change
Stay change your high modern-day standards Stay my mother tells me
For the ancient tales say a wife beaten is loved Stay my church elder tells me
For the Lord hates divorce
Stay the therapist tells me
For forgiveness and love can change a man Stay my friends tell me
For my societal stand is at stake
Stay my ego strokes me
At least for the security of the kids
Stay they say
But how do I render undying submission Without reciprocated love
My body battered
My heart torn apart
My mind depressive
My eyes visionless
My life a mirage of a wife
Please let me go
I need to breathe
Before my life is another statistic of women dead Out of domestic violence; an avoidable cause. He is a devil by the day.
