Rape

You save yourself or you remain unsaved,

I just want to sleep,

A coma would be nice. Or amnesia, Anything, just to get rid of this, these thoughts, whispers in my mind, 

Did he rape my head, too? 

Now, should we treat women as independent agents, responsible for themselves? Of course,

But being responsible has nothing to do with being raped,

Women don’t get raped because they were drinking or took drugs, 

Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough, 

Women get raped because someone raped them.

Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes, 

The problem with groups who deal with rape is that,

They try to educate women about how to defend themselves, 

What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape,

Go to the source and start there. 

Most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while most women fear rape and death,

I can explain myself: If you want to be safe, walk in the middle of the street, I’m not joking,

You’ve been told to look both ways before crossing the street, and the sidewalk is your friend, right? Wrong, I’ve spent years walking sidewalks at night,

I’ve looked around me when it was dark. 

When there were men following me, creeping out of alleyways, 

Attempting to goad me into speaking to them and shouting obscenities at me when I wouldn’t and;

I suddenly realised that the only place left to go was the middle of the street,

But why would I risk it? Because the odds are in my favour, 

In the States, someone is killed in a car accident on average every 12.5 minutes, 

While someone is raped on average every 2.5 minutes, 

Even when factoring in that, one, 

I am generously including All car-related accidents and not just those involving accidents, and two, that the vast majorities of rapes still go unreported […] 

And, thus, this is now the way I live my life: out in the open, 

In the middle of everything, because the middle of the street is actually the safest place to walk. 

She knew I could tell with one glance, one look, one simple instant,

It was her eyes,

Despite the thick makeup, they were still dark-rimmed., haunted, and sad, Most of all though, they were familiar, The fact that we were in front of hundreds of strangers changed nothing at all,

I'd spent a summer with those same eyes-scared, lost, confused-staring back at me,

I would have known them anywhere.