Dreaming of clean sheets x

Sleep deprived woman
She's tired and drained
She rubs her eyes
Try's to keep her mind alive and entertained

She has battled with demons
For most of her life
She has been on the sharp end
More than twice

Her skin is leathery
But when she smiles
You see beauty behind
From her early life

Earthy tones
And deep blue eyes
The Beauty drowned a little
Every time she cried

Yellow tinge stains her fingernails
The cough forming in her chest
From the smoke she inhales

Her body so thin
You could call it frail

And her hair is greasy
Her heart stale

She is waiting a ship
That's never set sail

Her mumma left when she was a baby
Her daddy she never new

And didn't care to

Brought up by her nanna
A hard woman herself
And her poppy
Well....
He was rage
It Always  took control
Threatened her everyday
And beat her to a pulp

One day she ran
As far as the eye could see
She ran so far
And eventually found the streets

Swapped beatings and clean sheets
For roadside fires and the earths scum
Slept in alley ways
And Was stealing bread
When girls her age
were at prom

She was lost
With no loving arms
Until man after man
Caused her harm

All these years later
It's a wonder she is even alive
Her demons should have killed her inside
But it's amazing how a strong heart can survive

It's almost nine
Her body gets the shakes
Waiting for the liquor store
To open it's gates
A little sip of wine to get through the day
To ease the jitters
So she can finally wake
........ The cool liquid washes her throat
Gives her absence
That she is used to
and knows

Forty years
She has been home on these streets
All the time dreaming of loving arms
And a set of clean sheets x