Will Anyone Believe Me

( after Agnes Török )  

 
How many of us, no matter our gender  
or where we live, can remember a time  
in our lives, - now help me, think back -  
well, some of us will need to go back  
further than others, when life didn’t  
always mean filled with danger & fear?  
 
Imagine how it was, and how it is now.  
times of what sexual violence is today.  
That we are, all of us, touched in ways  
that make us victim, supporter, abuser,  
enabler, judge & jury, for good or bad,  
untouched? yet clean hands no longer.  
 
I know because I was one of many who  
believed as youth fresh from a cocoon  
that there was only now. Now to do the  
things that youth feels the God-given  
right to do & be & experience perhaps  
forever, being the first immortals ever.  
 
And so, just as I ventured out beyond  
the cocoon, my wings unfurled and dry  
from the sun, uplifted on the breezes,  
I was caught and caged into servitude  
with bars of that cage existing only in  
my mind, and a cage is not meant to be.  
 
Sometimes I wonder which is stronger,  
the body or the mind, and is it the body  
or the mind that must break free of the  
unnatural bonds by the minds that are  
deranged? How did I not realize what  
was being taken that’s precious to me?  
 
Rape is ongoing around the world with  
every breath we take; to every gender,  
age and walk-of-life with violence that  
shackles its victims, making it hard not  
to become overwhelmed, or a recluse,  
because rape is of the body and mind.  
 
So if it’s happened to you, a spouse, a  
lover, a family member, a dear friend,  
a colleague at school, or work, in your  
support group, even someone who is  
not on your list, you need to know  
as they ask “Will anyone believe me?”  
 
However you reply will mean their life.  
will give them light or dash all hopes,  
unlock a door & open windows wide.  
Take hold their hand and go outside,  
show them there’s a great wide world  
that’s been waiting all along for them.  
 
We, all of us together, can ensure on  
that day when the victims are freed,  
and no more will people be victimized;  
is when we listen to their words, and  
no stigma or dogma is ever force-fed.  
To stand and show that No means No.