Two Poems (Anonymous)
Anonymous
One
My side hurts
fingertips to shoulders are velvet opera gloves
heat shimmies up leg
(predator’s hands under my skirt).
Two
Someone told me to trigger-warn my life for them,
Interrupted me and told me I needed to trigger-warn my life for them,
as if hearing of the violation
and my resistance to the violation,
was itself a violation.
Shame
silence hovered
I said,
My option was to be brave,
That’s your option too.
Copyright Credit: Anonymous, “One" and "Two" from Survival & Beyond, Issue 1 / Spring 2024 (Safe Passage, 2024). Copyright © 2024 by Safe Passage. Reprinted with the permission of the author.