Rape

Will you hold the light over me

When I walk all alone

In a darkened street

Shine it, guide, police my way

Perhaps, it’s a lot easier to hold candlelight vigils

Leave wreaths and bushels of flowers

Gather silently in droves say one’s piece and move on

It is tougher to quell the monster that tears at its leash

That surfaces at night to devour

It wears an innocent face

The monster is a man by day who

Firmly believes it’s not his crime or his doing

He distances himself - saying the devil prompted it

Or he is cold - saying she ‘deserved’ it

It was her clothes, her makeup, her body language

Or being there at the wrong time of day.

Blame is such an easy thing

Easier still is to foist it on women

‘The mother did wrong. She didn’t bring him up well

It is so easy to pass the buck, assuage guilt

Than to question a conscience that is muted

That takes delight in another’s suffering

That subjugates to feel powerful

That sees female bodies as bait, as playing fields

As common fodder to steal, ravage without guilt - like cattle in fallow lands

The earth is a playground to forage and any woman alone is a target

Pleasure lies not in joyful happy coupling

But in overpowering, disempowering, disrobing

In insulting, sullying

In mindless, callous depravity.