Alana Hayes
to my shame
i found me in his Brain again
and here i thought
Body was the sinner
was taught that Brains
didn’t sin
they were always
Logical Men
but why is it that Brains
can’t stop themselves
from touching Bodies
why is it that i, a Body,
can make myself small
keep my hands in check
and that Brain can’t
even when i tell him to
when i prove i have a Brain in this Body
and they stand up for each other
why does he still insist
on treating me like an object
even after all this time
we haven’t gotten very far have we
i only traded the title chattel for your toy-
tramp-slut-whore-bitch-bimbo-pussy-dyke-candy-cunt-skank-tail-cougar-cow-kitty-
FRESHMEAT!
i’m over here
i only traded rights i didn’t have
without the permission of a father or husband
for rights i’m promised, but don’t always get
does my safety mean anything?
and you would actually call me sin
when i am but your object
and the sin lies in the eye of the beholder
here’s to my shame
may it be long lived in a courtroom
where everyone is more worried about his future
than they are about what happened to me
and they broadcast all over your tv screens
about what a waste prison bars are for his life
what about my safety?
am i supposed to live my whole life in fear
always looking over my shoulder
because we’ve decided that those “20 seconds”
aren’t important enough to ruin his “precious years to come”
here’s your get-out-of-jail-free card son
it’s her own fault for not keeping her knees together.
here’s to my shame
that we might never even make it to the public humiliation of a courtroom
that i might remain the slut of your jokes
the toy that you laugh at for years to come
that thing that you left behind
a dumpster, in an alleyway, strewn across
a stranger’s bed like a piece of trash
let’s toast to our shame, America
we let him get away with it
but, hey, at least he wasn’t murdering anybody
right?
Alana Hayes is a twenty-four year old American citizen currently living in Haifa, Israel, where she works at the Arab-Jewish Cultural Center Beit Hagefen (House of the fruit of the vine), a non-profit organization dedicated to the values of shared society and cross-cultural communication. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she received a BA in English Literature and another BA in Women and Gender studies. She has a background in non-profit cultural work specifically focused around Judaism and cultures of the Middle East. She has worked for Hillel, The Jewish Museum of Maryland, and Silk Road Dance Company. Most of her poetry revolves around themes of Judaism and feminism. She likes to take modern issues or experiences from her life and give them context using history and/or Jewish lore and culture. This particular piece is one she wrote around the time of the election and, and one she feels still rings true to issues we’re facing as women in America now. You can find her on Instagram under the handle @womanasriot.
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