No Proof ≠ No Rape
If you've seen the video for my poem Carved into Bones you know where I stand on the idea that in order for a rape to be validated there must be proof. This is a topic that really gets under my skin and it probably will for the rest of my life. So I wrote about it some more and I thought I'd share this very rough first draft for a limited time. I'm thinking this may be the start of my next book project...
No Proof ≠ No Rape
This society says your rape isn’t really rape if you don’t have proof,
says your word
your trembling limbs
your scratched at skin
don’t mean a thing
don’t mean violated
don’t mean assaulted
stolen
raided
ambushed,
can’t prove you’ve been raped if you can’t prove you said no
that you fought,
can’t pull the salt of your tears from your cheeks, hold it out like rocks overflowing in your palm and say here, this is their touch, their breath, their heat. this is the only proof I have besides my tongue, or will you take that too?
maybe these bodies need to apologize
say sorry for being a body
for being not theirs
for making them want to make this body theirs by being
for them taking this beings body and this being not making certain this body could prove
this rape
this rape
this rape
is not always a thing that can be proved
that does not mean it did not happen
that does not mean it did not happen
that does not mean you can tell someone it did not happen to them
societies denial does not un-rape anyone
it teaches monsters that they can rip you off your hinges as long as they don’t leave fingerprints
can stomp their way across the threshold of your flesh just make sure they cover their tracks
says, don’t worry, we won’t believe them unless you’ve confessed. Your word against their consent.
says, even if you did do it, we can’t blame you. Not when they were asking for it with all that skin over all those bones housing all that human inside that you needed to make yours.
This society says your rapist is not a really a rapist if you don’t have proof
so you give them your story, plead that this is the only thing you have, reopen the wounds and bleed, shouting NO PROOF DOES NOT EQUAL NO RAPE until your lips crack, begging to be believed but they still say, show us
the footage