Andrew Delapruch Poet Free verse

Moral Tension: Part I

always prided herself on
what she believed to be the
“right way to live,”
standing up straight, abiding
by the rules, going to church,
paying her parking ticket on
time, doing her 9 to 5 gig every
monday thru friday, always
on her soapbox & always
having it easy cause’ she never
got her morality put to the
test.

her favorite cousin asked her
to come visit the city &
though inside she was a bit
reluctant, she hadn’t seen her
cousin for such a long time &
the summer was the time for 
having a little fun anyway
(so she told herself), so the
hop on the Amtrak was quick &
lo & behold, she arrived at
Penn Station 
round 4:00 pm.

that night they went out on the
town, the group of them &
when crossing the street she
heard a scream---it was shrill
& short, as if it had quickly been
muffled---
looking in the direction of where 
it had been coming from, 
she saw with her very own eyes
a man repeatedly striking a 
young woman in the face, whilst
yelling at her in between the blows---
they were more like hard slaps than
punches, but the sound that they made
she swore that she could hear them
over the sound of the cars & the
crowds.

while her friends continued to walk
as if nothing was happening, she
found herself slowing down &
as she watched the scene unfold,
it was over in real time much quicker
than the delay in her brain,
which seemed to vibrate in sync with
the increasingly rapid thump of her
heart.

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