I would give you a long explanation over why I wrote this poem, but it is unnecessary. Just look at it as an expression of anger against all forms of rape and abuse that exist.
The first time i knew the meaning of consolation
was a breath of warm air into my ear,
air that smelled faintly of humour-laced
words and cigarettes, telling me
‘Shhh, you’ll be fine now.’
And I remember looking at his dark
brown eyes and the pockmarks
on his skin as he said this, and the bruise on
my knee stopped throbbing quite as much.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore.” I said
as he smiled back at me.
They say how an adult reacts to a situation
has a psychological impact on the child’s
reactions, but those are big words, and I
was but a small child,
and those words to me had nothing to do
with logic
and everything to do with magic.
Years later, I stand in front of the full length mirror,
like a broken sparrow with mulberry wings
and haunted eyes,
and I try to form the same words
but choke up mid-way,
as I see his form approaching,
once so familiar,
now so strange,
as I see his hands reach for me
I realised what words I
once thought were magic
in the way they healed me
were the words that had broken
me in the first place:
he whispers into my ear,
‘Shhh, you’ll be fine now.’
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