cat calling
Learn more about other poetry terms
“You owe it to me”
He says, with a genuine tone
“Come with me girl
Keep me company
Don’t you leave me all alone”
“No”
To the men who catcall me on my way to school
and to my sisters who experience it too,
How much more skin
do I need to cover?
Every inch,
Monday morning,
Sleep deprived and mind a blur.
I step onto Main Street.
Walking to class,
tripping over broken bottles, barbed wire,
Things the men in my life have said to me:
"Yo girl, how you doin"
When I didn't respond, he repeated himself
Like I needed to be told again to respond to men
"Yo girl, bring that ass over here"
These streetlights, overhead bus lights, flashing alley bulbs,
The flickering, the only light of holy left here.
Churches keep their doors shut,
Eyes, the only thing illuminated without lights on,
Listen,
I tell the tale
Of my pain
Of their pain
Do you hear them?
The collective despair
Shared by every woman who is forced
To witness their culture stripped
Only to be sold
She feels them staring at her.
The energy it gives off
Makes her want to jump out of her skin.
