A Sweet Nightmare Poem by Clinton Ekeh

It was a pale evening
The weary sun had gone resting
Passing the baton over to the meek moon
Whose benign brilliance, the night dampened soon
Somewhere in the dark zone
Was a lady burdened to her bones
Alone in a solitary room
No friend, no groom
Only memories of her past loomed
The bane of her contrived doom
Her once haven of marital bliss
Metamorphosed into a living hell
They had met by coincidence
Fell in love by providence
Their marriage was a bed of roses
Until the thorn of childlessness pricked in
It was their fourth year
A child she was yet to bear
He had been supportive
Being her only source of solace
But as time went on
His attitude went wrong
He began keeping late nights
Returning home was no more a delight
He started hanging out with his old boys
After work they would converge in the club
Do some liquor
Drink to stupor
Most nights he would return home drunk
Like a Tyson in the ringed bunk
His wife was his punching bag
Whom he beats blue black
This became his habit
Every night was an epic
Her body bruised badly
From continuous battering
She had to nurse herself
For she couldn’t afford a physician
A shadow of her real self
She couldn’t fit into her skin
Looking lean and unkempt
From lack of resources for upkeep
Her life was a misery
Hell couldn’t be more mean
A woman of sacred sorrows
Tears being her only succor
She had no friend to call on
No family to lean upon
He was her everything
Her friend, lover and family
Once her reason to smile
The Charming with whom she walked down the aisle
Once her heartthrob
Now her heartache
She hurts badly
She’s lost her esteem
Bound by her vows
Wished it could be reversed
She wouldn’t give up on him
Kept hoping he would turn a new leaf
In the photosynthesis of time
Just that fate wouldn’t let her sun shine
Her night peaked its darkness
When he brought home another damsel
Moved her belongings to the balcony
Banished from her marital kingdom
For the treason of barrenness
Her curse, her blessing
Thoughts of her excruciating experiences
Drove in flashing speed through the road of her mind
As she walked lifelessly
Through the deserted road
Without taking cognizance of an oncoming vehicle
She drifted to the heart of the road
Before the driver could decipher what it was
A collision had already ensued
Before him laid bare
A pedestrian at the verge of death
With the speed of light he drove her to the hospital nearby
Two days in coma
The third day she came round
But she’d lost her mind
Could think strait no more
When her body had healed fully
She was admitted to a psychiatric facility
Where she underwent counseling
And her story got some hearing
She's a strong black woman
Her weakness being she’s a woman
Exploited and abused
By the man she adored
Her likes abound in the society
Whose untold stories isn’t this poetic