Counting

1, 2, 3…

I am not your sweetheart,

Your darling,

Or your baby.

4, 5, 6…

Toxic words

Dripping from perverted lips

Lead to dangerous action,

Proving just as harmful

To breaking bones

As stones and sticks.

7, 8, 9…

We’re told it’s okay

Because they’re just compliments,

Nothing but words;

Meaningless,

Devoid of any real impact of violence.

Being told to smile

Is nothing but

A friendly gesture,

And we should feel that to be fine.

10, 11, 12…

They say: rape culture

Is a different thing;

Sexual harassment is not related.

A culture of objectifying bodies

With breasts and curves

Is not connected to

The 1-in-5 bodies

Female assigned at birth

Who are sexually assaulted.

There cannot be real evidence

To connect the two;

Just lies we make up ourselves.

13, 14, 15…

It’s easy to say

Street harassment is harmless

When you’re not the one

Being harmed.

It’s easy

As a person

Without breasts or curves

To turn away,

Close your eyes,

Cover your ears,

To the dangerous

Experience of a person

Living life in a body

That leads to being stuck

In this constant nonconsensual routine.

16, 17, 18…

Being a legal adult

Means more danger than ever before

Simply walking to a bus stop.

Endless

“Come over here”s, “Gimme a smile”s, and “Come home with me”s,

Followed by sickening

“Sweetheart”s, “Darling”s, and “baby”s,

And the longer

We continue to act like

These words mean nothing,

The longer we deny the struggles

Of those constantly worrying

About how much longer they can go

Wandering the world in this body

Before being raped,

Knowing that if they were,

And dared to say it aloud,

They’d be told to not make a scene.

19 is next but I’m scared I won’t get there…

We need to stop

Pretending as though

The way we speak about one another

Does not affect the way we treat each other

Both systematically

And person-to-person.

We need to admit as a society

That objectifying language

Perpetuates a culture

That allows

1-in-5 rapes

Of people with the same body parts as mine

To occur over and over again

With no justice,

No accountability.

How much longer

Do I have to count in fear

The number of years I’ve survived

Before experiencing something hauntingly foreseen.