she told me~ By Linda M. Crate

she told me that you raped her
yet you're still walking.
she told me that you raped her
yet still you're talking.
i saw you at the dollar store one day
hid behind a shelf waited for you
to walk away because i knew
if i acted on emotion i would have
bludgeoned in your head;
she told me that you asked about me
when you two were dating,
and it repulses me to know that you're
the one once my heart fluttered for the teen
my heart once wanted, as it's threadbare
butterfly wings opened and closed --
why is it that some men get to
choose whether or not a woman is
treated well or poorly?
did you feel like a man when you took
away her rights, did you feel like a man when
you forgot you were a man not some
soulless creature thrust into reality?
i want a society where rapists are punished
not the victim, she told me that you asked her if
you were better in bed than her husband
that made me nauseous; i am so glad
i haven't seen you since that chance encounter
at the dollar store because i'd have snapped
should you have said a word to me.


Author Bio:
Linda M. Crate is a Pennsylvanian native born in Pittsburgh, but she was raised in the rural town of Conneautville. She attended and graduated from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English-Literature in 2009. Her poetry, articles, reviews, and short stories have appeared in several journals online and in print. Her first chapbook of poetry has recently been published through Fowl Pox Press and is entitled A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn.