stopping for the paper by Megan Mueller is a poem about a wife/mother who keeps her walks long to avoid arriving back at her house (not a home,) where her abusive husband awaits her. He yells, hits, drinks, and is so unbearable that his children moved out of the house as soon as they were old enough. Their mother wasn't able to escape, and the husband uses this to his advantage. "Where would you even go?" he asks her, and the truth is, she stays because she doesn't know. Megan Mueller writes this poem magnificently, and realistically describes the terrible reality of abusive relationships.

    Mueller does an incredible job of showing the reader what an abuse victim's life is like with lines such as, "at home there is love, so no, that house is not a home." and "she stays because she still believes he can change." Although these lines are a few of my favorite, what I really love about this poem is the formatting. Megan starts the poem off by describing what the woman looks like and continues the piece as if it is one long sentence, adding on to the last sentence and so on. The poem goes on and on, just as an abusive relationship can, seemingly unstoppable. Megan Mueller's writing makes this poem incredible, with her beautiful word choice and terrifying story.