Caged: The Haunting of Marie and Billy
Refrain:
When trouble calls and raps your door
As chaos rise to test you
Whatever gets you through the night
You must do, living blessed you.
I.
Marie thought Billy was sublime,
so strong in his uniform,
the first born son of Pastor Joe,
first sight on first Sunday morn.
Discharged for good, the rumors said,
enlistment contract fulfilled,
next Sunday, after Pastor’s sermon
Bill’s ask for a date did spill.
(Refrain)
II.
Marie took time to primp just so,
genteel smile, she opened door
to Billy’s startled speechlessness.
Such contrast to years of war,
through years of taking as he pleased.
The kills, the rapes, the dozens
he knows he can never forget
and will never be forgiven.
(Refrain)
III.
Compelling him, his darkened mind
now yearns for somewhere quiet;
a little club at edge of town
where rum will bring compliance.
When Billy says he’ll stop at no
Marie agrees to linger,
yet slaps her into saying yes,
a drunk demonic figure.
(Refrain)
IV.
A year goes by before the trial
arrives to bring to a close
one chapter in two haunted lives.
Yet trailed by festering woes,
he rusts away in stinking cage,
stays stoned but feels no better;
her earthly prison’s crumpled soul,
she’d kill him if they’d let her.
(Refrain)
I’ve used John Lennon’s title and lyric, “Whatever gets you through the night.” as a response to many things people have told me. It feels like a blanket forgiveness for things people might do to survive rough patches. I really had no idea where the ballad was going when I started it, but this is where it took me. After writing it, I’m not so sure I’m on board with it anymore.
Tao Talk 
A sad but frequent story
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And it never seems to decrease over these many years war has existed and patriarchy has called the shots.
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Wow…! First must say this ballad style is highly entertaining, as serious the topic is, and gives it a timeless appeal…the story is psychologically so clever, so real, so well told.
When you see the absolutely horrendous things Russian soldiers have done in Ukraine, aptly described in your verse, you cannot imagine much less when they go back…except unbelievably by Russian law the girlfriend cannot bring a case against him, or wife — unbelievable but true.
Such a well-constructed piece. Surely so difficult to pull off, but so very good.
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Ain, it was very difficult to try to put into words the muse wanted me to tell. I know it looks clunky, but I’m glad the message got across. To hear what Russian law says about these matters gives me a horrible pit in my stomach. It’s not so blatant here, but the police aren’t always on board with holding them accountable. I originally wanted to have the uniform be police uniform with brass buttons but the muse steered me to the military. Thank you for reading and your comment, spoken from one who has seen with their own eyes what war does.
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Yes…is clear was a deliberate policy in some places and the horror we know about is terrible. I am sure there is much we do not know. I won’t describe some things about what happened to women..and girls in Ukraine, specifically in the first months of the invasion, one reason being am not sure it can be believed. Bless them. Yes, a Russian man can physically batter a Russian wife and she has absolutely no recourse to justice. Domestic violence was taken off the register as a crime. It may be that a woman could get justice trying to prove assault of some kind, but good luck in Russia, the police are just not going to listen. Am not sure many in the West realise the situation, when one considers that criminals are let out of jail in Russia if they serve in Ukraine, then when they come back to Russia, murder and rape ex girlfriends, this has happened more than a few times. Anyway, your poetry was spot on, it does not matter where it is of course, just that there it is catastrophic.
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And the orange one feels the monster at the helm is a good friend.
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Nice post 🌺🌺
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Thank you!
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Wow Lisa this is great, it is a tragic and traumatic ballad as ballads are…so well written. Great work!!!
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Di, thank you. It’s a story that needed to be told. Like I told Ain, it’s a little clunky to be sung, but the message hopefully got across.
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A really fantastic write. Bravo!!!
Thanks for dropping by mu blog, Lisa.
much♡love
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Gillena am glad you liked the poem, as grim as its subject matter is. Thank you, my friend.
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A haunting ballad indeed, Lisa. The darkness spilled over from his ‘years of taking as he pleased’. These lines sum up a familiar story very well:
‘When Billy says he’ll stop at no
Marie agrees to linger,
yet slaps her into saying yes,
a drunk demonic figure’
and
‘he rusts away in stinking cage,
stays stoned but feels no better;
her earthly prison’s crumpled soul,
she’d kill him if they’d let her.’
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Thank you, Kim. “a familiar story” is a crime in and of itself.
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It is indeed, Lisa!
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Excellent, Lisa! Sadly I think many of us have inured ourselves against these stories and tend to block them out when we hear them on the nightly news. Your poem/ballad brought these thoughts of atrocities, PTSD and all the emotional spoils of war to the forefront. Absolutely compelling lyrics; I found myself humming along in a very bleak and minor key. 🖤🎶
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Nancy, thank you very much for your sensitive and articulate comment. You’re right, we hear it so often we are numbed to it.
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Most welcome, Lisa. That is something we should never let happen. 🙉 🙊 🙈
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:-) On that Lennon piece, I think you followed that rabbit down very deep. :-D
As for your verse, I’m with you… a victim has certain unalienable rights . :-)
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Chris, I thank Dora’s prompt for going down the rabbit hole with it. I appreciate your comment.
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The war bring the horrors to home… and victims will follow again and again. are there prisons enough to handle the ones coming home?
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They’ll become cops are national guards, ready to step in to maintain status quo.
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A ballad most dark, Lisa, and the refrain is chilling, especially as it juxtaposes the blessing of life with the horror of rapacious chaos, as if one entitles the presence of the other somehow. That war wears a uniform struck me particularly as I was reading, as if war can be ordered and tailored to stave off depravity and the worst excesses of human nature. There is so much more to this ballad than meets the eye.
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Dora, thanks for taking some time with it. It puts on paper so many ideas rolling around in my head.
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Great lyrics. What ever gets you through the night… Reminds me of Kris K’s song Help Me Make it Through the Night.
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Dwight, thank you. I can see Kris tweaking this and singing it. I appreciate the comparison <3
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You are welcome
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A tragic ballad, so believable and true–the age-old consequences of war.
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Nobody wins with war except the warmongers :(
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True.
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That’s a sad story. No good comes out of war. (K)
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Yes there seems to be no abatement :(
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A heartbreaking story. 🥲
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I know :(
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Nice sad little story Lisa…I really liked your last line.
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Thanks, Max. Sad doesn’t even begin to describe it.
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What a sad and haunting story. Just sad what war can do to the soldiers and families and communities. Good one!
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War is hell is the saying. Thanks, Grace.
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