Relentless
Women are measured by their ability to be small. Quiet.
How pretty can you be while you disappear?
How hot are you while you keep that
pretty little mouth shut?
Relentless women are loud. They take up space.
They are more often than not disliked.
I don’t need to be liked.
Wildfire
I have been so scared since I saw him at my daughter’s school.
Scared of him being in the same building as my child.
Scared of others’ decisions, scared of not doing exactly what was expected of me,
scared of how I was perceived.
That man lit the wrong match 20 years ago, and everyone who has gotten in the way
of holding him and others like him accountable has fanned the flames.
They fanned the flames and then told me not to burn it down.
But this story is mine now and I am the scariest wildfire they have ever seen.
On Trial
“Coming forward” seems to me language related to having
done something wrong and admitting it.
It’s what we ask of victims
requiring their vulnerability,
demanding they exchange their privacy
for potential change.
We ask this of women and then put them on trial
and expect them to be grateful.