We Said "No"

Dear “No”,

I send my sincerest apologies to you,

For I have used you and other women have used you, and little girls have used you,

But whenever you are uttered, you evaporate into the air like steam from an iron,

And instead of being allowed to demolish the wrinkles of the situation, a man lifts the iron before the two could even touch,

A man.

Men.

They hear you, and they know what you mean, they know who you are, yet they pretend you’re foreign to them,

They pretend to hear an invitation when in reality you are telling them to get the hell away from us.

And straight to hell they are doomed after they touch bodies they were not given the permission to touch,

Sacred bodies.

They leave our bodies on the battle field, but we are the ones with left with bruised, purple hearts because we are soldiers,

We fought.

We are strong.

And we said “No”.

We screamed “No”.

Men – they have no right. They have no rights upon us.

We are not property, we are not for sale and we are not for the taking.

We said “No”.

You are ignored, and underappreciated. I am sorry.

“Just say “no” if you don’t want to” – well excuse me, she didn’t ask to be raped, and she didn’t ask to be molested or harassed and a little girl shouldn’t have to grip the scissors underneath her pillowcase every time her bedroom door opens because,

We said “No”.

Men in Hollywood, men in grocery stores, men with white collar jobs, men standing on the streets, men who are trusted family members-sorry, were trusted family members, men with high political authority, men at clubs and parties, men who try to convince girls that they were asking for it, that somehow her clothes said yes even though she never did, that he didn’t know she was drunk, and he doesn’t know how rape drugs got into her body, men who think women owe them something – men.

They don’t like you. They don’t like hearing you, “No”. They see you as a threat to their masculinity. Oh, but they definitely find you useful when they use you to deny women equal rights,

But when I use you, and when other women use you, and when little girls use you – we will no longer be silenced,

We will no longer apologize for what men have taken from us when we never gave our consent,

So, yes, I know I said that I am sorry to you, “No”,

But it is the men who colonize bodies because they think we are too weak to defend ourselves, simply because we are women – they are the ones who owe you an apology because

We said “No”.

With Sympathy, Appreciation and Love,

Devyon Brown