Forget the Cartoons

 

He’ll probably look just like me,

he’ll know how to smile and can probably make you laugh

and it’s easy passing pleasing drinks purchased already

where something simple as a pill can leave you caught to rot

from the inside out.

This is a letter to my nieces

and where words fall into pieces

I can only hope that I might say this right

and place some fear into the sights

that will one day be standing right infront of you, pretending they’re beside you.

I want to see pictures in your lockets

but knifes in your pockets

because the good and bad in people

is so much more extreme than we let on

because Disney tells you stories where it’s a man who saves you,

but believe me, you’re on your own,

because when it comes down to that moment of truth

you’re the only one who can save yourself

because there’s those who’ll climb on you

just to get off on the fear in your eyes

creating scars like stars becoming the only things you’ll see.

I want you to be carefree, but careful at the same time

and the only thing that frustrates me as much as knowing that he’s out there,

is that he probably looks just like me, because this is a tool he’ll use,

he’ll come with smiles, but leave you with tears.

Like Scar in the lion king,

or Jafar in Aladdin

the real versions of these men are out there

and like predators, they prey in the silence of comfortable situations.

But you come from a long line of heroines

From Eleanor of Aquitaine

who fought for these things again and again.

To your mothers and your sisters

who’ve covered their own blisters just to keep you, you.

If only for a little while longer.

Now I’m torn,

do I tell you these things that I know will prepare you,

or do I let you live in ignorance just so I don’t scare you,

because I’m scared that 1 in 4 is just a rounded-down estimation

and it’s only 1 in every 4 who comes forward

towards trying to make a sign that someone might see,

but we have a court of law, not justice, so noone listens to the pleas

in a legal system acting too busy

where the rules of law is like the Forrest through the trees

and only those with bruises you can see

are barely taken seriously.

There are good men and there are bad men out there

and I’m caught on this fence between running away from this

and towards you

because I’ve lived in fear and it’s unimaginable,

and I’ve been in love… and it’s awesome!

I want to teach you how love holds no bounds

and exactly where a mans arteries can be found.

I want to teach you so many things

but I don’t want to contradict myself,

Because before and after can never be the same

and a vacant look on your face would say more than I’m comfortable saying myself.

I want to teach you about Goldilocks and how locks can be picked

and how long hair might save you, or give the wrong person something to hang onto,

because the truth is you’ll never know for sure

until after the fact, or until it’s too late.

And truth be told

like the tools used to carve names into trees bark-bare

this is a man made fate for women everywhere

and these are the days when swords no longer come with shields

and like Andrea Gibson said

your bodies have been a battlefield

you were born with scars that other women took to their graves

trying to save future generations from the same fate,

but there are still rainbows you can see and stars that will tell you stories.

I want to teach you about spaceships

and the space between endings and new beginnings

where knock-knock jokes can go on for days

and all the light in the world is only there for you to play.

I believe in unicorns and goblins, those monsters under the bridge and mutants in the alleyways

and from the spiders in our attics to the ghosts beneath our beds

I want to teach you what would scare the bravest men dead,

because one day someone will try to use you, or abuse you,

now I’m not trying to confuse you about the beauty in this world,

I just want to teach you something that you’ll use, something useful,

like a knife in your back pocket

for when that guy convinces you that you can trust him,

for when that guy get his hands on your drink knowing that the cops will never bust him.

Not everyone will enter your life for the right reasons

because not all of us are standing on our own two feet

and some of us will take from you just to not feel incomplete

and not everyone will smile because they’re trying to be nice

and not everyone will give without recognizing the price

so remember, your open heart and open mind have to meet you open eyes

because I’ve heard people say that which doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger,

but it doesn’t always work that way and that rule was made

by the same men who made the rule of thumb

and it was said without saying, not so thick it might brake you,

just thin enough it might cut you.

So with your eyes open let the shadows crash

falling back into the places posing personal pleasures

like feathers from the forms that once flew,

now ripped out and thrown to let fall,

you are the legacy that lets others be free

so fly

and live

and fear

and love

and hate

and trust

and overcome

and be.