STORM WARNING

STORM WARNING

She listened quietly
To the usual tirade
Of petty disappointments
And the expected parade
of peevish digs and slights
Hurled with venom and spite
At all he had in his sights.
Ah but then it came, at last,
To her turn, as expected.
His finale,  his blast
of   'special-brand' invective.

The tune was cracked and old
She had listened half her life
As he told and retold
How she failed him as a wife.
He needed someone to blame,
Someone to subjugate
To hide and mask his shame.
A target for his hate
To hide his futility
And to substantiate
His need to elevate
By grinding her down
To where he could dominate.

Unaware that she had roused
From years of mind-reeling
non-feeling in which she'd been housed.
He sipped his tea.
The vessel too fine and small,
Fit only for a passing squall.
He caught her alien glance
As their marital life darkened 
With  clouds of no chance
And brief lightning flashes
of the Final solution.

© Susan E Birch  -  2014