Poet’s Notes: Mama’s Guide To Coping With Sexual Assault follows a mother giving advice to her child who was raped by some boys who stay near her school.
This poem highlights the way society blames the victims of raper rather than the perpetrators. In this poem, the mother believes that her daughter was raped because she wore revealing clothes and did not ‘keep herself’.
It also highlights how the victims of rape should be ashamed and should pretend to be fine even when they are not. This poem also shows how society dictates to victims of sexual assault or any other form of aggression on how they should behave and hold themselves in public.
Despite rape and sexual assault, being common in many parts of the world, victims are shamed into silence. This forces to try to heal on their own without trying to seek help or community.
Mama’s Guide to Coping With Sexual Assault shows, in full light, the horrifying experiences of victims of sexual assault/rape that have been shamed and blamed for their own misfortune.
This poem is a portal of condemnation of society’s embedded bigotry, a show of sympathy to victims, and an urge to the disturbed to try for help in positive places.
Wake up in the morning, stretch your body
Say a short prayer, brush your damn teeth
Take a bath, wear some nice clothes
Make yourself work, paint your face with a smile
Do some meditation, say hi to folks on the road
Never miss a beat, go to school
This too shall pass. You know, at school
You tend to forget, to ignore everything your body
Has been through. Take a long walk, the road
Can clear your head. The junkies have teeth
Yes, to crush your spirit. But a smile
Works wonders, my dear, and so do your clothes
If you cover up, it will not happen again. Because clothes
Will protect you from the bad boys at your school
I know you see him every two nights. His sinister smile
Makes you shiver. Like ticks on your body
You did not keep yourself. That is why he sank his teeth
Into your forbidden place. Cross the road
When you see him. The other side of the road
Creates space so no one sees the marks under your clothes
They are not there. If someone asks, say your teeth
Found their way to your skin. Your school
People would not know the difference. Your body
Is not to be destroyed. Even if you don’t mean it, smile
You have to act fine. That gap-toothed smile
Is the ultimate convincing tool. I repeat, cross that road
When someone gets too close. Your body
Is marked with a blade. He got under your clothes You have to act fine. That gap-toothed smile
You have to act fine. That gap-toothed smile
Is the ultimate convincing tool. I repeat, cross that road
When someone gets too close. Your body
Is marked with a blade. He got under your clothes
Yes, the tiny things you had on. I’m sure your school
People have done it before. Show them your teeth
Let them know it does not matter. Snow-white teeth
He knocked one off, I know, but smile
At him when you see him at school
With his other rapist friends. Do not fall on the road
This is very important. Because if you do, your clothes
Will ride up and they will see the scars on your body
Hush, my child, at school, and expose your teeth.
Cover your body, don’t say a word. Just give your best smile.
They must not know the road lout felt the body under your clothes.
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