day SIX HUNDRED and FIFTY NINE

The Fault Lies With

when a woman
is sexually assaulted
she will find a way
to punish herself
atone for

                        THIS

crime for which she’s been told
she is responsible by
society or religious teaching
or the men and women
in her life

                        IS

this rational
appropriate
justified
it matters not
one woman will punish herself
by eating and eating and eating
putting physical space
by way of flesh
between her and her
potential attacker
attempting to make herself
so unattractive
that a man “would


                        NOT

even rape her”
which some men will be
more than happy to tell her
starting the conversation with
“Your face is so ugly

                        YOUR

body so fat…”
another woman will punish herself
by starving her body
shrinking enough so that
she will go unnoticed
in a world of danger
while at the same time
exercising obsessively
so she might be able to
outrun her attacker or
fight back against her attacker
or at the very least
prove her attacker isn’t
mistakenly seen as
giving her what she wants
either way she subconsciously
hastens her own death
because there is no other penalty
for this crime that is her

                        FAULT


-- Rachel Toalson