Please help me find this poem about domestic violence.
August 5, 2013 9:59 PM   Subscribe

Please help me find this poem about domestic violence. [Trigger warning]

I saw this performed awhile ago, I believe it was on TV. The performer was a black woman; this is what I remember:

The main verse was "She tells me he loves her," or maybe "He tells me he loves me," So it went, "He tells me he loves me [blahblahblah,] he tells me he loves me [blahblah]. I believe it was told from the perspective of the woman's friend, but I could be wrong.

It basically went on to describe various abusive acts by the man in the story until in the end she's dying and still saying "he loves me." The person in question dies at the end.

Does this ring a bell for anyone? Google mostly brings up amateur poetry; but I'm pretty sure this wasn't an amateur piece. I think I saw it on TV, but part of me thinks it may have been part of a compilation? All I know is it was video, not live. This would have been late 90s-early 2000s.
posted by Autumn to Media & Arts (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Maybe "I got flowers today"?
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:23 PM on August 5, 2013


Response by poster: That wasn't it, but I'm pretty sure that poem was in the compilation!
posted by Autumn at 9:01 AM on August 6, 2013


This rings a bell with me too. Was it on "Showtime at the Apollo"? Unfortunately, googling that and "slam poetry" didn't bring up anything definitive.
posted by Fuego at 9:51 AM on August 6, 2013


Best answer: I'd be willing to wager it was a performance on Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. The Wikipedia entry lists each performer and titles of the works from every episode. Perhaps scrolling through that list will jog your memory or give you a better set of words to google.
posted by kellyk801 at 1:49 PM on August 6, 2013


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