putting words to it
This isn't me
I am out here
I am not here
This body
I don't know
Whose it is
He came in daylight
He came as a friend
He came as a game
That I didn't know
I didn't want to play
They never told me
I couldn't trust them
The seven year old
Didn't know
This isn't me
I take off my clothes
And I don't look down
I wonder if he remembers
I wonder if he liked it
We see each other
And we smile
I wonder if
They can see
How my heart
Beats faster
Than it took
For his hands
To take off my clothes
I wonder if
They can see
How my hands
Shake before I remember
To close my fist
You can't understand
Unless you are one of us
A statistic
A category
There are times I wonder
If I made it all up
Until the clothes come off
And his fingerprint
So long ago
Still stains me red
I see it
I want them to understand
I want them to reach
Into this tornado
Into my calm center
And pull me out
I want to be okay
I want fear
To not be a gender
I want nightmares
To be something
Other people talk about
I want to
Walk to my car
And not look for
Escape routes
As if his hands
Are reaching for my throat
I'm tired of fear
I'm tired
Of the sympathy
"It makes sense now"
Like my rape
Is a proverbial
Light bulb
As if I now make sense
I am not a rape victim
I am a woman
Who was raped
My survival is my life
And there is no prize
Congratulations
For doing
What others find normal
Now go to sleep
And wake up
And this is not me
I am a shadow
I watch this
Body change
And I think
What would it
Look like
Slashed with red?
This is not me
I am a woman
This body
This malformed
Mistreated
Misunderstood
Disproportioned
Misshapen
Monstrous
Body
This isn't me
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