Inferno by Anne McMullen Peffer

The author wishes to note that this poem was inspired by Litany, by Mahogany L. Browne INFERNO Today I am a Mormon Woman in New England   & I am singing pioneer trail songs like lullabies.   They sound like:           The mothers walked in thick and heavy skirts —...

filler words Sophie Mindes

When he assaulted me, — but that is the wrong word Assault is what they do in video games, when the men shoot a volley of arrows into the sea of the goblin army Assault rifle. No, it is not the right word But neither is rape. Not for this. Not for me. I cannot...

Artwork Abstraction by Darshita Jain

Stats say, one in every three girls will have experienced rape or sexual abuse in their lives I am one of three daughters. For most of my life, I have been told I am a work of art My body a work of art a canvas, stretched far apart, White. Clean. Pristine. My body is...

Water Softeners and a C- by Sarah Kersey

When I was 10, we lived in a neighborhood that was always under construction My parents installed an alarm just in case anything were to ever go awry They set up the defenses that should have been indestructible But there was this one day that I ended my walk from the...

To A Survivor by Michael Russell

To A Survivor Audio File   V. To a Survivor It wasn’t your fault. You hold guilt like a snowball in bare hands, the cold permeates through flesh into bone—stiffens. You sit outside, numb winter with winter. There is a beast hibernating inside you. Describe him:...

Protection by Starr Davis

(Ma ma) sleeps          with a knife    under her pillow   (her dreams are                   (safer than mines)             I grabbed a butter            knife, put it  inside            my pillowcase               dreamed a man         climbed inside my window     ...