day EIGHT HUNDRED and TWENTY SIX

What Is the Number?

Is it 60?

Is it 7?

How many does it take

to make you

believe women?

How many stories must we tell

about how we couldn’t get away

about how we were drugged

about how he said he would kill himself

if we didn’t text back?

How many?

Is it five?

Is it five hundred?

Could it ever possibly be just

one?

Just one without you asking

if it was so bad why didn’t you get away?

Why didn’t you leave?

Just one

and you’ll stop saying

she’s lying,

she wants attention

as if risking the embarrassment

the pain of reliving

what was done to her

is not horrifying enough?

Just one

and you’ll stop defending him?

Stop saying he’s misunderstood?

Stop calling it a witch hunt?

Stop making excuses for

his behavior?

Just one?

Just one more?

You tell me.
How many?

--Ally Malinenko