Posts Tagged ‘ Sexual assault ’

Poem: Cheerleader

Look - His body is glorious
when it moves across the floor
when it bends and lifts an orange sphere
at the right trajectory, an arc to in in in

you are in no position to say No
when coaches tell you to applaud
you were never in position to say No
to His muscles & bones
      the charge of rape was dropped

you can never say No
when you're told to call His name
you can never say No
to turning your lungs & breath & c(h)ords
over to the student body

                                         to lead them in desire
                   for His body
to move across the floor
& lift the orange sphere
into the right, desired arc

                                            your body
                                              belongs
                                     to these other bodies

as you long as you hold the pompoms
and want to stand in front

                                    and you sh-d never have to hide

a response

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Poem: On Not Writing about the De Anza Rape Verdict

I'm not going to write about it
because nothing changed today

another woman sent home with nothing
more valuable than limp, wrinkled tissue

and I'm not going to write about it
don't ask me to ask

what it means that the women who saved her,
the heroes, could only take her 

to the hospital where World Famous Doctor
would see her just enough to testify

                                               She wasn't
                                               too drunk.

don't ask me to ask if the jury believed
him over the women who saw what happened

or if they just believed Facebook photographs
and a slut can't be raped

I've never held a shot in my cleavage
but I'd had a few margaritas

don't ask me to write about it
don't ask me why I asked me why smiled

outside my flat
days, weeks, months after it happened

I'm not going to write about it
I'm not going to say for the twentieth time

                                               And you wonder why
                                               I don't report it?
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Poem: A Popular Website Puts up a Poll Asking if a Journalist is Responsible for Her Rape

and yes and yes and yes wins, oh yes,
a win thinner than the waning crescent moon

is still a bruise
                        on the arms or the chest of no
                        on the hair or the eyes of no
                        on remembering, on dreaming, on waking
                        no
has been held down by yes
                                              again, again
         and still it's no's bruise

yes isn't even asked
to take ownership
with victory

                        yes, I've been no
on a hotel bed—not public
               not at work
                just sick
                        yes says
I could've stayed home
                                       I loved him, yes
after, briefly, until I taught myself to forget
love, yes
                  and left the country

and all I want to do is trace these yes IPs
find the people behind the yes hands
and make the bruises theirs

                                       and maybe this is the worst
                              that yes has done to me
                              by forcing me beneath

and I've taught myself
too  not to care
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Magdalene & the Mermaids

Magdalene & the Mermaids

Magdalene & the Mermaids

Elizabeth Kate Switaj's First Collection of Poetry

Available From Reviewed at Sample poems at
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  • @KristenSahara
    Agreed. I try to write poems with interesting imperfections instead.
    2012/05/18 01:15
  • @nomopoetry
    @dagny Then like I said you'll love Lindley Murray.
    2012/05/17 22:46
  • @nomopoetry
    @dagny OK, if you want to cling to Strunk and White, that's your business.
    2012/05/17 22:18
  • @nomopoetry
    @dagny That would mean striking most of the book. It's not just dated; it was wrong to begin with.
    2012/05/17 22:15
  • @nomopoetry
    @dagny But surely that can be taught without the baseless prescriptivism wrapping?
    2012/05/17 22:13
  • @nomopoetry
    @dagny Formative of what exactly? Linguistic prejudices unrelated to real usage? Why not go all the way & read Lindley Murray?
    2012/05/17 22:51
  • @dagny
    @nomopoetry Argh, please, no. Strunk & White is terrible. See, for instance, and
    http://t.co/GLQYqo3N
    2012/05/17 22:10
  • "Go inside a stone / That would be my way." #poem #poetry
    http://t.co/NNbXR1N3
    2012/05/17 20:25
  • "Writing while facing a wall, incidentally, seems to me the perfect metaphor for being a writer." - Francine Prose
    http://t.co/N42f866H
    2012/05/17 19:18
  • Read an old post: Poem: A Popular Website Puts up a Poll Asking if a Journalist is Responsible for Her Rape
    http://t.co/ogNVIbGz
    2012/05/17 14:12