"Before You Ask"

 

Before you ask, she beat me for years,

The bishop's daughter, the screaming nymph.

Nobody called the cops

Or heard her growl and scratch and punch.

Nobody knocked at my front door

When she beat me with her tiny fists,

Her heels and leather boots.

As I slept

As I drove

As I ate

When I dared to dream the nightmare away

When I snored

When I drank

When she drank

When I begged.

If I wept.

When I fought back.

She beat me...the bishop's daughter.