Independence

I grope around the floor
Looking for something
The key that I dropped
Perhaps or the pillow from the settee
Can't find
Frustrated
In a rage
Throwing things around the room
Fortunately the unbreakables
This time
Anthony hovers over me

Eccentric looking, white pants, brown leather belt

Tousled hair and glasses

He brandishes a small leather notebook

Upon which he writes

Takes notes

As I unable to see

Continue to grope in the darkness

I hear the rustling of a newspaper

Headlines detail a murder

In Greenwich Village

Anthony shuffles

Towards the Venetian blinds

Looking out across the street

There's a police car in the distance

Watching the house

I am scared

I wish I could have told him about my husband

That he was abusing me

But I didn't want to play the victim

And get any sympathy from you

He hurt me

And now that you've cut me out of your life

It's too late for that

I got to know you very well

In a short amount of time

And you have hurt me more than he

Waiting just outside

Waiting all day

I am frightened

And you don't fucking give a damn

I sprinkle the gasoline at the top of the stairs,

And around the bedroom

Things are dark now

And I wait to take the matches out of my cardigan pocket.