"Abuse: A Love Story"

How many men
 are there in Ireland like Sean,
 beautiful wronged

beings who hurt others in order to protect

 themselves?

            How many women              

have been baffled and hurt by their intense love

 and swift rejection?

 How 

  many children wonder over their father's rages and mood shifts? 
      How many 

       lives are lived without joy,
 because joy is such a strong solvent that the rigidly

   constructed outer personality
     dissolves and the terror reveals itself?   
           

When I think of the pain
 Sean inflicted upon
 me,
 I shudder.

 If I could

go backwards in time,

 knowing

 what I know now, would

 I refuse his dumb-

show of pain, refuse to put on the black
 cassock-like dress,
 so I would be spared the cruelty

I endured?
 I think so.
 But then I think:
 perhaps someday that silenced

child will remember that,
 once,
 he showed someone
 what happened,
 and that

afterwards he was not hurt,
 or maimed,
 or killed.

 And perhaps then Sean will

have the courage to seek
 the help

 he so desperately needs.

 And the joyful times

 we spent:

 if I could unlive them, would I do so,

  in order to avoid the painful aftermath? 
 Sometimes I think so. But more often 

    I think-I pray- that it will ultimately have been worth it,
that the memory of our        

     honeymoon will rest in Sean's memory until one day
knowing himself capable of

such delight, he will find the strength
to fight past his demons 
and claim the life he

so desires.

                                                                                                                     ~From"Irish Spirit";
By Lucy Delores Moore

                                                                                      
                                                                                                              

~Beannaichte' (3-21-12)