Lee Marsh Abuse Recovery Page

Mother was always parading
Me around to different men
Hoping that she would find
One to take me off her hands.

Arranging social gatherings
To desensitize me
To a stranger’s interest
So my mother could be free.

Stranger at my house
Checking me out
Hoping to get lucky
And win me for his bride.

We sat around the kitchen
Talking about God and other things
When mother walked in and announced
"It’s time to talk of marriage and wedding rings."

We looked at one another
He shrugged and said "What do you think?"
"OK I guess" I had no choice
We were engaged within a thought.

Mother arranged the date
The place, the cake and all
We found the preacher and the rings
And mother arranged a wedding hall.

In five short weeks she arranged
From beginning to end
I went from seventeen and single
To eighteen and wedded bride.

Within two weeks I knew
What a horrid mistake it was
By letting mother direct my life
She said "my bed was made."

And so I stayed for fifteen years
Of sadness and regret
Never thinking that I had
The option of getting out.

Until the thoughts of death
Were crying to get out
I finally left because I saw
It was the only other way out