she used to wake up in the middle of the night…screamin’ into her pillow…cryin’ and carryin’ on like a woman possesed…haunted…she’d flop ’round on the bed…have convulsions…yellin’ out the whole time that somebody had taken her love away…came in and stole him in the middle of the night…took him away in chains and handcuffs…she’d cry and yell till the mornin’ sun came out…dogs barkin’ at the backdoor…mornin’ paper bein’ thrown up on the front porch…that’s how her days started…

she’d walk into the bathroom and throw cold water on her face…brown eyes still stingin’…puffy cheeks with dark circles on ’em…she looked like someone had beaten her up…someone had…someone had…

a long time ago she fell in love with him…tall boy who played high school football…strong…he was a fierce competitor…real jealous kind too…got angry at the least little things…didn’t take much…one word from anybody would set him off…she learned this from the beginnin’…don’t make him mad…whatever you do don’t make him mad…

and as time grew on he got angrier and angrier…he’d be like a wild man when he got home from workin’ at the factory all day…at first he’d want to make love…then that would turn violent…kept tellin’ her to use make-up to cover up the bruises…he didn’t like lookin’ at the bruises…

well…one night he didn’t make it home…stopped at the bar to have a few and that was the last anyone had seen of him…some say he took off ’cause the cops were onto him beatin’ his woman…said she’d told ’em…nothin’ could be further from the truth…then there were those that said he had another woman he’d left her for…some kind of foriegn bride from Indonesia…Vietnam…Mexico…Russia…someplace…said he emptied the bank account and took off to meet her down state in the city…that was a lie too…

there was no tellin’ where he went…all she knew was he’d left her…left her at night screamin’ into a pillow…the love of her life was gone…so she said…that’s all she knew of love…that’s all she knew…