Uncovering

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Uncovering

By Lynda M. Forman

take away the darkness
for this moment
and see me
standing before you
so naked of
all pretense and
ideas of being okay now that

you can see
that bruise on my arm
was from the time he threatened to
put me in his trunk

that the wrinkles on my forehead
are from wondering if I could be anything
without him and
some of them are from believing it

that my sex is spoiled
from the night I spent pretending
to enjoy his muscles
overpowering me

but underneath the darkness I impose
lies the truth
because I refused to tell you

some words I can’t remember
because I have pushed them inside
so that they can not surface
as all too true nightmares

he would push me to the guest bed
when his parents were gone
and he would relieve his desires in
moments
somehow I believed it
to be my duty

the martyr for all girls who
have been raped for years
without realizing it

but I knew him
and I never said no

aloud