Roses

This is for the quiet ones

For the ones too afraid to scream out for fear of backlash
For the frightened ones
Cautious, ready, running, looking over shoulders, peaking around corners

For the children who are ruined by circumstance

For the girls who had just a little too much to drink.
They should have sealed their lips, refused youthful pleasures

For the wives, with bruises and bleeding thighs. 
The ones who are told that a white dress is a contract.
A ring: their signature. 
For the wives who are told, repeatedly, that they are simply property.

For the girls too afraid to say no.

For the girls who never get the chance to say anything at all.

For the girls terrified to walk alone at night

For the ones who wake up.
Screaming, Pleading, Begging for the nightmares to stop.

And for the boys who are dismissed, told that they must have wanted it.

Branded weak because this only happens to women.

This is for the fighters. The biters. The clawers. The crawlers. 
For the ones who got away.

This is for the ones who did not.

This is for the victims.
For all the ones who were blamed, shamed
for speaking up.

This is to our rape culture.
To the men who are taught to take what is theirs
And to the girls who are taught to let them

To the social media 
They seem to forget
That rape is not a socially constructed metaphor to help the feminist agenda
its a crime

a capitol offense punishable by law

and yet, we let them go

rapists walk the streets, confident and happy

fat with the fruits of their disgusting freedom

and we lock away the victims. the men and women tortured by memories of those moments. 

Shove them in cells of hatred and judgement.

Tell them its their fault that someone else took away all the security they spent their lives earning 

We say they asked for it

And that justifies everything

But there is no justice when the victim becomes the criminal 

If a person says no,

If they don’t say anything at all.
If they are drugged 

Or mugged

or gagged

or bagged
 

Rape. is Rape. is Rape.

A rose by any other name is still covered in thorns.