That Man

He spoke broken English
He drank day and night
This man was my father
He always wanted to fight.

It was usually my mother
The focus of his rage.
He'd beat her senseless,
Sometimes for days.

Every night we lived it,
The screaming the beating.
For her life she'd beg
Bruised and bleeding.

We'd beg him to stop hitting her
Cause she trained us well,
"Papi, please dejala"
then we'd face his hell.

Out a 2nd story window
My mother he dangled.
She yelled out she loved him
To avoid getting mangled.

Things broken on the floor
Blood splattered all around
I wanted to kill him,
But I just didn't know how.

He brought us a puppy
That we always wanted.
We were happy all day
But we took it for granted.

That night he came back
Grabbed the poor brown mutt.
out the window he threw it
On the street laid all his gut.

That man was so cruel,
that man was a savage.
Why didn't he just leave
And take all his baggage.

He made me eat spinach
Grossed out i threw up
he made me swallow it again
It was just my bad luck.

For any small reason
he'd beat us really bad.
we always hid our bruises,
Our life was really sad.

He swore many times he'd kill us,
With a sharp knife one day
He'd put our bodies in the freezer
So he'd have time to run away.

Family friends and neighbors
Of our tragedy they knew.
Still can't understand why
Nothing they would do.

He died some years later
I was very sad,
Not cause i loved him
But for what i never had.

Now my sister denies it
She's made up a story
Of this wonderful dad
That deserves all the glory.

Although I'm happy now
Once in a while I'll remember.
I'm glad I never gave up
'Cause life did get better.