That’s a Good Girl

A news response poem

He said: That’s a good girl.
On your knees, head down, 
on the floor, take some more. 
For the business deal, for your career, 
for the rent, for your reputation.
Just because I can.

He said: Sit up, shut up, 
don’t say a word, don’t tell my wife, 
don’t talk to HR. You asked for it, 
you wore it, you made me do it.

He said: What’s it gonna cost, 
what’s it gonna be, what do we gotta pay 
to make this go away? One fifty, a million, 
a brand new Mercedes, a diamond 
bracelet, a corner office?

I said, but only to myself: 
You can try,  but you can never 
really buy silence. The lies ooze 
like pus from an open wound,  
festering and spreading, fetid and foul.
Sooner or later, facts bubble up, 
evidence emerges, stories are corroborated, 
the video shows your face. No cash 
or check or brick of gold will erase 
what is real, what we still feel 
in the darkest spaces. 
When the truth appears, 
it will unfold like a snake 
and swallow you whole.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: This poem and several others were accepted by Text Power Telling (TPT) earlier this year. This one will appear in an upcoming issue. It was written as a news response poem some time ago and is especially relevant this week.

TPT publishes work written or created by sexual trauma survivors, those who love survivors, as well as those who support survivors.

You can check out their site here: https://www.textpowertelling.org/tpt-magazine

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