Primeval we...

If others would like to recognize various poets' contributions, please privately message them or comment on their profile pages; let's keep the competition solely for artistic creations, please. Thank you, luvs. :-*


This competition is about the re-victimization of people: when someone has been harmed: stalked, assaulted, bullied, raped, what-have-you by a predator and then is placed in the equally painful position of being re-traumatized by those around them for having had this occur, for causing inconvenience, for making a fuss, for the difficulty of dealing with the harassing individual (the predator).

Poems should revolve around this topic exploring the hows and whys of this phenomenon in cultures.

For instance, why do groups, communities, cultures, societies oft ostracize those who have been preyed upon? And, why are predators welcomed back many times? How and why did this develop within humanity?

Explorations along these lines are pertinent as well as musings about the practice or happening in general: thus, philosophy and observation are both welcome as well as scientific and socio-psychological exploration, certainly.

What is it that causes blame to be placed on the one preyed upon rather than the one who has done the preying?


Two weeks
New or old pieces welcome
Collaborations fine
Please do take time to thoroughly edit
All feedback on poems will be provided at the end of the competition


Again:
If others would like to recognize various poets' contributions, please privately message them or comment on their profile pages; let's keep the competition solely for artistic creations, please. Thank you, luvs. :-*



Example:


Primeval


Every time I think I'm leaving
Every time I think I'm done
Every time I haven't resources left inside
Every single time ~ she retrieves me once again


I know she's tired
Has her own struggles
Has been victimized
And then blamed

What's even worse, though, is those blaming
Have more in their hearts than this shame


Tis frustrating when the predator's:

elusive
cunning
malicious
fey

And

The prey, seeming source of all frustration, is at hand and easy to mislay.


There are lessons played out daily, some we see internationally. Some are spread across airwaves, Internet, TV.


Yes
When frustration
aggravation
irritation
and
the like emerge,

Sometimes,

We forget we've primal instincts and we're oh, so tribal, the primitive lurking, not so submerged...


Tis the predator who deserves our censure and, indeed, our rage


Where lies our compassion and our care? Methinks, even in the primeval, it yet remains ~


we've just forgotten ourselves for a time...

Exposed

how will we ever stop the violence
if we condone it with our silence
how can we encourage victims
to come out of the dark
when daily we're displaying
our lack of support
when the shunning
and the punishing
only happen to the wronged
and the guilty go on preying
as they've always done
and here we sit
lips tight
eyes closed
ignoring what they're doing
or worse yet
doing it ourselves
quietly endorsing
isolating and avoiding
until the victim
who's still bleeding
vulnerable and reeling
stands alone
as we walk away
leaving them
terribly exposed

Victim's Victim

Lock them up throw away the key
or else you are attacking me
Don't let them seek love online
so I can feel safe and fine
Define them only by their offense
unworthy of a second glance
Don't be fooled by crocodile tears
they're devoid of human fears
As their victim I demand my right
endless suffering be their plight
Know them as another species
for food throw them feces
Death's too good so make them live
don't expect me to forgive
Let no good books expand their mind
never know what they may find
They're rabid animals no even worse
deserving of our every curse
Their families can have no demand
for visits to their cursed land
They must endure their consignment
of solitary confinement
I get so upset when some people say
release them all one fine day
Letting beasts roam my neighborhood
to prey on the weak and good
We must not dream of rehabilitation
it's for the good of the nation
Am worthy and just am not like them
I only condemn

Devolution 
(History in Reverse)

We used to share what we had;
We used to work together for everyone;
We used to feed from mouth to mouth; 
We used to care and be family even not by blood. 
As we lived peacefully and multiply steadily, 
Scarcity soon became, the new commodity. 
While we learned to organize ourselves, 
We explore new territories and meet those who're the same as we.

What we needed, we bartered for.
We flourished for a time but then we wanted more.
Lands became the life and death of our ancestors;
Savage that we were, cut heads were trophies of warriors, heroes and kings.
It wasn't enough, but the earth ceased to exist above grounds.
And so we braved the odds and conquered the oceans,
We found out that the world is round and vast; 
Greener pastures, rich, healthy, and full of fools.
 
Them and us, us and them met and became unholy friends 
Until one side desires what the other owned and  had
For hundred of years the Gold, Goons and Gods reign raising renaissance
Politics, Economics and Religion had orgy in one house.
Centuries had passed and the landscape of God, Have changed in exchange of railways and skyscrapers;
And the house of trilogy was divided out of morality...
But, behind closed doors, still fornicating in secret-marriage.

But we remained the same, despite the dressing.  
For wanting and self-preservation, we continue to struggle and climb up the hill...
Not giving a damn, who we crushed below us,
Not even those we professed to love.
For survival in the jungle of norms and fads,
We looked above and reached for the stars... 
To those who have the power to bring us to the top 
Just like a parasite latched tight atop the high and mighty buffoon 

We felt more secured if we follow the herd by free riding
Just because we kept on wanting and struggling to keep what little we had. 
You might say that we evolved, humans we became 
But our hearts' desire remains the same, not Primal but Neanderthals.
Slave to earthly gains, for comfort and material gain.
We forsake others for pride and prejudice; for greed and wrath..
Because we are devolutionizing passed back the Sapiens 
And now we wait to be primal again... 

When we could share again what we would have 
When we could work together again for everyone 
When we could feed again from mouth to mouth 
When we could have a care and be family again, even not by blood. 

But until then...
We, remain.

©OxyDup2016

Cult

countless fingernails embedded in the
shower stalls that rain down acid

of every nightmare, projected like
the heavily spliced silent newsreels of

bi-plane skylines and Purple Gang massacres
in the bubbled cracklings of deteriorating

nitrate, leaving the blackened outline
of holocaust victims; the lidless glare

of a strobe filtered through the spider-veined
parchment of its skin, lurching off the
chattering sprockets of vertebrae, and

throwing chaos into a clockwork sluice
that sets in motion the next death star cult

Emily

She shrugs agaist the cold of lonesone
Her downcast eyes wet with tears
The pain of alienation by proxy
Holds her in its iron maiden grip
And there seems no one to hear the scream she holds so deep
If ever it escaped quivering lip

At night while wading through the fog of sleep
The act that keeps her self worth prisoner
Flashes behind twitch of heavy hoods
She re lives the assaut as if yesterday
And sets strait up with a rush of breath
Her body trembles emptiness and is covered by beads of sweat

She had once gazed at the curl of his hair at his neck in adoration and Hope
And she felt like she was dreaming when he asked her to be his date
Her euphoria hung tight to heart and surged to elation on the big night
And my God he looked perfect to her yen
Her grin peaked as he held the door of his car open urging her in
She was the luckiest girl in school she imagined
To be in the passenger seat of their cherrished quarter back
So bright was the glow of contentment that it blinded intuition
As he stopped his Mustang mid country road far from the local
drive in
And was soon swallowed by the confusing new sensation
Of his traveling hands now holding her tits

She had cried NO when touch became too much
But he did not pause to honor it
Instead he roughly spread young knees apart
And savagely stole her innocence

Now she mourned her life before that terror night
When she was happy and it was filled with friends
Who now stung her poor heart with the venom of words
And shunned her from their nest
Because she had taken away a golden boy
And caused them the state championship

Judge Not

how do you plea
guilty your honour
but it wasn't me
voices in my head
told me what to do

told me to rape
pushed me to hurt

she was asking for it
short skirts
tits jutting out
of bra-less thin shirts

heads swivelled
ah...the tart and her tarty dress
the legs that went on forever
the whisper of lacy underwear
under short fluffy skirts


she looked down in horror
why did she come
she ran out of the door
high heels clicking on the floor

they looked at him
the prey
trying to look innocent
his eyes swimming in tears
sounding sorry
for the jury

Guilty, he said
guilty, she whispered
running away
and down the lonely road
of healing.

Stand Behind

Who is the one that stands behind you,
blocked by the one we see?
Who is the one that guides you,
intention's master, raw thoughts betrayed?
The masque is not the true face
of what you believe deep down inside.
The buttons of fear or love are depressed,
pulling forward the curtained self.
They'll walk behind you and we'll see you,
they'll speak for you, your lips will move.
Beware the masters served, those thing repressed,
they are revealed when you least expect.

Still there are the deepest thoughts,
the ones rarely shared with myself.
These are given leave to visit
and then asked to return to the depths.
Privacy of self gives faint approval
to the thoughts that swim below the surface.
The mob will flush the hidden pool,
blessing given to those things kept dark.
Either guilty pleasures mark brief visits,
or perhaps dire unwanted terrors.
One is let go in embarrassment
while the other released by panic's child.

Here is the twist, God's supreme laugh track,
others have their own stand-ins.
Civility of the common place
is in constant threat from the other selves.
Ideology and theology, idolatry and humanity,
passion's despair and hope's sorrow,
God and Devil, the worst and best
wait in conflict to reveal themselves.
A crowd awaits in life's shadows
behind the most holy and evil folks.
All are striving to impose themselves
when the stakes are high and spirits down.

You ask why we are asked to strive,
to project something other than ourselves.
The answer lies in the cooperation,
uneasy truce of the common man.
Pity those who lay outside,
no compassion felt by our hidden parts.
No connections lay in between
the cloaked powers and these other tribes.
In the end we are all at the mercy
of this mix of yours and mine, those behind
the cardboard images of life lived pure
while the puppets strings are pulled.

Hello everyone ~

It will take me until the weekend to deliver a winner unto you.

I have a couple outside judges, in the interests of utter fairness, contributing their time and energy to your inimitable pieces as well as myself.

(If 'twere just me, I'd never make a decision...too much goodness in too many magnificently different ways :-*)

Until then, luvs...

This has been one of the most difficult tasks I have undertaken.

I knew it would be.

Dang. It!

I can only be grateful there were not more entries for me to wrestle over.

If I could but award trophies to all who participated I would.

First, I would say this: this became quite difficult for me as I realized there would be distinct categories and I would have to determine amongst those addressing very specific injustice by society towards individuals' rights and injustice perpetrated and perpetuated by society in a broader sense: towards groups, towards society itself, from civilizations (and here I utilize that term rather loosely) toward other civilizations...

This presented yet another conundrum for me.

My inclination was to choose from one group, then from another, then to choose an amalgamation.

Then came an entry that tested me in other ways, presenting, I believe, a view from another perspective: that of the predator. This was utterly disconcerting, yet is not art precisely to do that?

In fact, there are several pieces I found disconcerting: a testament to the power inherent within them. I certainly did not agree with all pieces posted. That, I believe, is the purpose of art in many ways: to take us right out of our comfort zones and thrust us into internal conflict forcing us to confront ourselves, our convictions, our prejudices, our dearly held desires...

Thus, I find this excruciatingly difficult for each poet here presented a view that deserved representation, yet there can only be three recognized within the constrictions of this format. And, only one of those three acquires an official award.

Thus, I need everyone to know this: were it up to me: I would award each piece according to what is addressed for each piece addresses a different aspect of the query presented, even those with similarities. And, I mean, were I not constrained here, not if I had control as clearly I do in some ways. :-p

Now, with all that said:

Grace, Willow, Jade-Pandora

I recognize that I indicated there would be individual feedback on each piece at the start of this competition. I have begun this, but for me this is rather a lengthy process and will of necessity result in a private message. If you do not desire such, please let me know, luvs. Thank you all for participating in my first (and what is highly likely to be my last) hosted competition :-p.

Wow, Savaja...thank you for adjudging me the winner, I am honoured and humbled to be named with two other awesome poets, Willow and Jade. Awesome entries everyone!

Where to begin?

First off, to our beautiful host Savaja.  Oh dearest, I totally empathize with you when I read your announcement, and how you detailed the way you agonized over the methods to use for choosing the winners.  I'm in the middle of preparing to do just that as my 7th competition will be closing in a few hours.  Many of us understand, please don't be discouraged.

And as for the outcome, I feel especially honored that I stand on the podium with TimidlyTempted, and the cup winner who truly lives up to her name, our gentle Grace.  I congratulate you both, and I feel fortunate I was able to be a part of this competition of such a relevant & compelling theme!

with my best to ALL,
Jadey

p.s. To Savaja: in response to the following, if you wish to note me your thoughts on my entry, this will be perfectly fine for me, thank you.