Diminished Responsibility Poem by David Harris

Makeup cannot hide the bruising,
or the swollen eye.
Sunglasses only make people,
what you’re trying to hide.
You seem so defiant,
only a few know the truth.
About the coward and bully,
who has a hold on you.

He looks as if he wouldn’t hurt a fly,
and smiles with a friendly face.
You’d take him as a regular nice guy,
but with in the four walls,
of a place you call a home,
he flies into a jealous rage.
Accuses you of this and that,
and then grabs the baseball bat.

His temper with in doors,
rages out of control.
He smashes things and you,
for any meaningless thing.
He thinks that with in the walls,
he is protected from anything.
He can use you as a punching bag,
and there is nothing anyone can do.

One day he will go to far,
you know that’s so true,
but you’re frightened of him,
and wonder what you can do.
You fear going to the police,
will only enrage him more,
so resign yourself to misery,
because he is coming through the door.

There is something shiny in his hand.
Fear opens your eyes wide,
there is nowhere to run,
nowhere that you can hide.
The newspapers called it,
a heinous crime of the century,
but you will never see the headline.
You’re new home is a body bag.

They carry your limp body out,
on a stretcher for all to see.
He just stands handcuffed,
saying, “It wasn’t me.”
It’s too late to go now;
you should have taken it when you had the chance.
He stands smiling with defiance;
they can’t do anything to me.

Guilty is the verdict,
but he stands smiling from the dock.
He cannot see anything he’s done wrong.
The said it was diminished responsibility.
The judge looked at him, disgust in his eyes.
You have been found guilty
and I sentence you to be locked away indefinitely.
The defiance faded from his eyes.