"Behind the smile there's danger” — Black Sabbath It could hardly be felt the pressure against you like a wind with fingers and a tongue and eyes like slime leaving a trail of demons whispering into your ear dreams you can't remember unless you try so hard, so hard you can hardly breathe — and sometimes you forget but you know it's there like a tingle in your spine. You know it's there. When he goes the first time, he leaves a sign inside your body that says COME BACK SOON. You know he will. He will come back for more and more and more of you until he has eaten all of you with his mouth. No one believes you when you tell them. It's all for attention. You weren't strong enough. You asked for it. Look at what you're wearing. You didn't say no enough. You were complicit. You could have said no. You didn't have to work with him. You didn't have to kiss him. It isn't so bad. This is just how it is. This is how it is. This is what you do. This is what you do to get in. This is just how it is. This is what men do. This is what you have to do to survive. There are ways you make yourself disappear. Silence the insides of your mouth with cotton and gauze. No one should have to hide themselves as if they aren't humans as if the only humans that matter are the ones with power and the desire to control — a violence that kills and breeds all those in its way, hands like demons shaped like snakes that twist and twist and twist around the arms and legs of people like you until you are too scared to run or talk or move until there are none of you left.

Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
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