Dear you

A Poem by Mr Soetry

Anti-rape

Dear you

Dear we
I know
We gonna attack me
For what I say
But I'm already crucified
By being 'we'.
Dear you
I've heard of
Your unheard cries,
Given birth to
By us,
I apologise.

I was never born
Of dust,
But of my nature.
A village never raised me,
But society's nurture.
Like a lion,
Destined to hunt,kill and eat,
I was once a cub in an internally mirrored box-
Seeing innocence on every predator's existence.
I prayed to be like them
I, too was never known prey
Of my nature.

I never thought,
Never knew of the spear in my smile,
A weapon
That reminded you
Of the stabs you got
Between your legs.

I am sorry
For opening, activating, bringing back
Your painful yesterday,
For I am a snake you saw
In the garden.
It wasn't me,
You too know
But it was 'we'-
Upright,
Deep voices,
Externally placed genitals
That ended up
In all the wrong places.

I am sorry,
We wrote our history
On your silent, secret caves.
It's not like we ran out
Of "our skin" to write on
We were just selfish.

Dear we
I know
We gonna attack me
For what I say
But I'm already crucified
By being 'we'.
Dear you
I've heard of
Your unheard cries,
Given birth to
By us,
I apologise.

They do applaud now.
But they never knew
Of the seed planted
In the young 'we'
As the dust off
Humanity from our hands-
Claps of mind traps for the young.
There were days
We were laughed at
By a different tune of voices,
You were there too,
but that's not the case.
We could have known better
When we saw the colour red
and hearing your "no"

I am sorry,
For we are weak.
When we saw you hairy
We thought it's our semen you lack
As our memories got us horny
Then we forcefully got you
Placed on your back.

It was'nt because of your
Showing behind
That shows behind
long skirts.
It was never about
the time you walked
on the street.
It was always
In the videos
that never stopped
playing in our minds.

But please,
Please spare
The young 'we',
Crucify not
The boxed cubs
Who are your cup-fills-of-joy.
Do not call them dogs,
For they are like caged lions
In the zoo,
They never killed
Yet named murderers.

But it's ok
Oneday
We will win
The battle within 'we'.