the witch doesn't burn in this one - Amanda Lovelace

• “write your fears.”

that’s what they told me. so i picked that pen up again & i traced my way over these openclosedopen wounds until the inky map led me right to the very ones who started it.

• keep an eye out

for all those quietly reckless, knotty-haired girls. you know you can’t hold back a wildfire, don’t you?

- trouble trouble

• they try to

convince us that our rapists will only ever be

strangers lurking in bushes in the dark, dark night,

that we should keep floral pepper spray & pocketknives

tucked neatly into our purses at all times

(because apparently even the act of trying not

to be raped should look lovely & feminine),

so that when our rapists end up being

our grandfathers/fathers/ brothers/uncles/cousins/ best friends/boyfriends/ husbands,

we have no words to describe it & no one willing to help light our torches.

- everything is a distraction.