No Longer yours to keep

The sun lies hidden behind a cloud.
As I hide my bruises from the crowd.
I lay each night too afraid to sleep.
While you tell me I am yours to keep.
 
Days slip by into months and then years.
My cries of pain no one ever hears.
Too afraid to stay, yet no courage to leave.
Believing I deserve the blows I receive.
 
This hole I am in growing black and deep.
I wait to die, not be yours to keep.
One final cry for help, finally heard.
Screaming it load, without a single word.
 
A glimmer of light can now be seen,
No need to return from where I had been.
The hole no longer seeming quite so deep.
As I learn I am no longer yours to keep.
 
Scars and bruises both seen and unseen.
A lifetime of fears never quite wiped clean.
New life beginning, no further need to weep.
Knowing for sure I am not yours to keep.