Freedom Fight..

He hit me in the left eye with a sharp right hook and knocked me to my knees.

I landed in a position in which could have been mistaken for praying..

I looked up to the face I loved..Tears streaming down like unleashed fountains.

I encountered only a sneer.


"Are you gonna shut up now? You have nothing important to say..So keep your mouth shut." His eyes were filled with flames..Nostrils flared.

I looked up in love...And determination.

"I have a voice..It will be heard. I have an opinion, it will be shared."

This time he kicked me in the stomach.

I fell with an unusual grace and Angels seemed to cry out...


I lay with bloodied lips and battered features..Crying softly, not understanding the violence that an opinion, that should be mine...Had caused.

"Are you done with your opinions and thoughts?" He said standing over me with a doubled fist.. waiting..

"No, I said, You can beat me to death. I will have thoughts..I will speak..I will share my ideas..And if you are wrong I will question you."


As I lay bleeding, bruised and naked to the world a light seemed to shower me ..A light from Heaven.

I had won..

He fell broken to my feet.. "I am lost inside..That is why I do the things I do. I have been suppressed so I want to suppress you."


I touched his head with my hand..Softly.. And said in a whisper, "Be healed..Be healed.." And I walked away..


by Nita Barrow-Zimmerman


This poem was about my first marriage. I learned that I had a voice that was going to be heard no matter what. I also learned I could forgive and walk away..That I could hate the sin and not the sinner. For they are so often broken themselves.






"It's not the wind that cracked your shoulder and threw you to the ground"