"What would you change about the world?"

A writing prompt from a 365 project I'm working on.

a smile at a stranger
would always be
out of pure kindness
to warm another’s heart-
in case theirs
was underdressed
for the weather that day-
and nothing more.
sharing laughter at a party
would be an honest declaration
of the joy that comes
with the human connection.
a smile, a laugh, would
not be an invitation
to be cornered in the dark
by unwanted clumsy hands
against shuddering breasts -
not a summons for
bark scraping the small of your back
and a hot liquored mouth dragging
across yours, as you plead
and push
and yell

N O

while thoughts of your love
waiting back home
burn through the back of your eyes
until your cheeks are wet
with teardrops
that hold more than you ever thought
could fit on something the size of a pinhead.
and s t i l l the sheen of them
seems to act
as a temptation
for those wretched slobbering lips
to press against yours
as if he was
trying to s a v e you
from what pained you
not just s a v o r
what he
knew
he should not have -
would not get-
by any normal means.
no, the flicker of a smile
would not give birth to trembling hands-
a bloodied lip where
teeth smashed and bit-
refusing to let go,
like a predator of its prey,
and a laugh would never
carry with it
the promise of a future shame,
an odd and shapeless guilt -
as if the betrayal
was committed by the
muddied hands
that scratched and punched
and now held your burning cheeks
as you wept
behind the locked door
of a stranger’s bathroom.

and in the mirror

there was only a stranger

staring back.