February 24, 2015
When you are quite small,
Observe and Witness.
Your brother hang
His GI Joe by a noose
Or
Your brother trap bugs to burn
With matches under a
Magnifying glass
On the cover of a Black Sabbath album.
Or
Your aunt have “Enough!”
And strip your cousin bare
To spank her with a hair brush
Until her round, white bottom is red as
A cherry in the glaring afternoon light.
When you are a bit bigger,
Observe and Witness.
Your best friend, and her cousin,
Send you hate mail,
While your mother is
Glad that you have made new friends.
Or
Your father slam your mother
Against a wall, squeezing her neck
With his huge, cracked-skin hands
Until her she collapses.
It is about bills, or a mistress…
When you are older still,
Observe and Witness.
A grown man try to trap
You in a basement, but
You know better and escape
By crawling out under his legs
And running up to your mother.
Or
A man thrust his tongue
Down your throat.
You are 12 years old, but
It feels kind of good.
When you are grown,
Observe and Witness:
The first man you marry
Beat you with fists
And shoes until you
Lie
Still,
Waiting for it to end.
Or
The next man you marry
Shout until he turns pink and purple,
And slams doors in your face when
You were just trying to help.
When you are older still,
Observe and Witness.
A woman sit in the nave
Of a Munich cathedral.
Legless, pregnant, begging.
Or
A homeless man
Make sweet love to
A Los Angeles sidewalk.
Or
How you wait for your lover
But he fails to come.
He is sick; he is tired.
He has other priorities,
And you,
You have no where else to be.
And, when you are older still,
Write a poem about
These acts.
Read it in public.
Pin it up on a board at the community center.
Post it online.
That is how to be heard.
