The Wedding

Every day somewhere in this world something like this happens...

It is her wedding day
Hours have been spent making certain
All is perfection…

The women have bathed her and oiled her satin skin
Her hair scented with roses
Brushed until it gleams like dark silk
Eyes lined with kohl
Her virginal body
Dressed in white
Scattered with diamonds
Shimmering like stars

As they lift the veil over her young eager face
She knows that this night
This magic night..
Will change her forever

Slowly she walks down the aisle
Her uncle at her side
Feeling the glances of her family
As she nears her tomorrow

He is there..
Cool and remote
He takes her trembling hand in his
As they recite their vows

Kissing her soft mouth
He whispers
You are mine…..
Forever

Later..
The women take her upstairs and undress her
She bathes as they murmur soft words of encouragement
She hears little..
Lost in a haze of enchantment

She is so innocent
Waiting by the window
A waif in white satin
dreaming....

She hears him enter
And runs to meet him
Face lit by joy and love
Her virgin body trembling
With longing

And feels her gown ripped from her body
He tells her cruelly she will be no fine lady this night
There will be no turning back....
No solace...
She searches his face,
Disbelieving his words,
Tears trickling down her soft cheeks.
Seeing no mercy
In his wintry eyes

Hearing the soft swish of trousers
Dropping to the floor,
she runs.....
His hard hand grabs he hair and pulls her screaming back towards the bed
A blinding pain hits her left cheek
She falls.....

Roughly he grabs her slender young thighs and brutally pulls them apart
Leaving inky bruises where he gripped them
Her body bludgeoned by harsh blows

As she tries to escape his brutal grasp
With one rending shove, he enters her...
She screams in pain
Feeling her torn violated flesh giving way
Bathing her in blood

Hours he goes
Relentlessly pounding her young tender flesh
Her broken ribs beating a counterpoint
To his punishing thrusts

Later.. in hospital
She lies silent...
A still shattered figure
Of innocence lost...
Forever