She Was The Understanding Sort

He had stabbed her best friend's boyfriend to death
In a bar fight
She had attended every day of his trial for manslaughter 
In order to support her best friend in her time of sorrow
His defense team presented him as a poor unfortunate
A victim of circumstances
Who just happened to have a knife on him at the bar
She began to sympathize with his plight
She began to see his actions as reasonable
She began to see him as misunderstood
And his arrest, trial, and conviction
As a miscarriage of justice 
At first all she wanted to do
Was write him a letter to let him know she understood
He replied and soon a full-blown correspondence 
Ensued
An afternoon visit lead to visits
Conjugal
Until in his third year of incarceration
A proposal
And a prison chapel wedding
Eight years later he was granted parole
A family man
Her father got him a job
And another after a co-worker pushed his buttons
She understood
He was misunderstood
When he was frustrated and lashed out
She understood
Every hole he punched in the walls
She understood
Every bruise he left on her body
She understood
All the drugs he used and the drinking to forget
She understood
When he didn't come home
She understood
When the police asked her to come down to the morgue

She understood