Late upload so it's a longer poem - What The Fuck, written 2017 in response to some local happenings.
'It takes courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends' ~ Dumbledore (who, let's face it, isn't the paragon of virtue we all thought he was when we were kids - sending kids into battle wtf)
WHAT THE FUCK
What the fuck’s happened to this world I’m living in, where man loving man is a sin
We kill sharks just to eat their fins and you have to pay for a recycling bin
My friend gets raped and suddenly everyone wants to get a pop in.
Punch her on the chin, yowling, shutting her down
I know him.
You little whore, you waste of skin
I bet you wanted it, invited him in
All this said with a walls-up grin
Like somehow an unconscious girl could lob her consent in.
I never thought friends could be so vicious
Find gossip and sneering and doing someone in so delicious.
Chase her out of town, shoot her down,
Turn that frown upside down, darling
You’re only lying
Why are you crying?
Better start smiling
Oh, you wouldn’t smile if it was the truth
How easy it is to be ruthless when it isn’t us.
Even if it was a false alarm, what a riot
To know if it happens to me I’d better keep quiet
Better not rock the boat
Make a fuss, sink don’t float
Don’t be a warning buoy for the others like me
Keep a false smile in the face of the man who spiked me.
Crikey.
I never realised I was so angry
Guess it just pangs me to see such injustice and blinkered bullshit
‘I should have lied,’ she said, and she called it.
I might love you all but we failed her then
Sacrificed honour, her safety, our friend
On the altar of fear and patriarchy
I wash my hands of this sodding malarkey.
It wasn’t hard to listen, to sit and hold a space
Just look her in the face and see how much this tripped her pace
Broke the solace she thought she’d found
Did you hear her when she cried without a sound?
She tried to kill herself twice in a week
Does that sound like lies? Like she’s weak?
Because it isn’t you who’s losing sleep
Lying awake, listening to her weeping
Knowing she’s trying so hard to keep on keeping
Climbing out of this heap
Of shit we poured on her
When we chose his word rather than question his honour
Rape’s only real until your friend might be a rapist
Until the monster truth has a human shape
When reality won’t match with your videotape
And all your Facebook morals get forsaken
I might be shaken
But I can’t say I’m blameless
I float along, easy and aimless
I haven’t been brave like I hoped I would
Haven’t stood up where I knew I should
I’ve made no waves, I’m shameless.
Tame and therefore stainless.
We can all post statuses and guileless platitudes
But it’s what we do that dictates our attitudes
And sharing blogs about victim blaming,
Righteously indignant, saying ‘we must do better, no more shaming,’
All the while turning our heads and training our ears and hearts not to listen
To ignore the blood and tears that glisten in the sobbing words of someone temporarily wrecked
Checked
Stretched to breaking point
We can’t stay silent, because silence can shout
It gapes loud in the space where we pushed her out
And now she’s gone and we think that’s alright
In our free love world, so sunny and bright
We call ourselves loving and go to sleep at night
But we didn’t even try to put up a fight
To hear a hurting girl rather than protect our bubble
We said ‘hush now, don’t cause trouble’
We said ‘shut up!’ and didn’t even struggle.
We say we believe in a better world
One with freedom for women and girls
But none of us wanted to hear what we heard
None of us dared to say a word
And instead we let her drift under a bus
Better her than us
It was all about politics, not about trust
‘Boys will be boys, you incited his lust’
5.7*, the rest left to rust
5.7, the others all must be lying.
Don’t watch them crying
It’s falsified fears, crocodile tears, block up your ears!
Ignore the whining, look – she’s smiling
Must be lying – there’s no denying
She couldn’t smile if it really happened
Couldn’t put on a cheerful lacquer
She accused my mate so it’s best to attack her.
We don’t want to think, ‘what if I’m wrong?’
The tribal push is hard and strong
But maybe we need to be better
When I wrote this, every fucking letter terrified me
What if I made you angry? If you decided to dislike me? Wanted to fight me?
But we can’t change anything with our mouths sealed
We’ve got to talk about it in order to heal the gaping wounds in our society
We can’t stand here on the sidelines quietly
Where if she accuses a stranger, it’s no danger
‘If he touches you again I’ll hit him too’
But what if it’s someone who knows you?
Someone you trust?
We let her drift under a bus
Better her than us.
*only 5.7% of reported rapes and sexual assaults in the UK go to trial
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