Poetry: A letter to the guy who slapped me on the arse.
Dear guy,
I know you must have seen me standing,
And thought, “Oh my,
It’s her attention I’m commanding.”
When you slapped me.
Or maybe you just thought
that I was not a person.
That you would not get caught,
That your life would not worsen
When you slapped me.
Perhaps you forgot
That it’s Twenty Fourteen
And that it’s not
acceptable to touch and demean.
Like the way you did when you slapped me.
I despair for all the women
Who, like me, have crossed paths with you
And now have to deal with harassment again!
At only twenty past two.
All because you slapped me.
I wonder what logic you had
That made you think to invade
My personal space. Were you being a “lad”?
Did you think you’d get laid,
When you slapped me?
Or, did you expect my response
to be kind? Was I meant to agree?
To express nonchalance,
To be your new devotee?
As you slapped me.
Think again, jack the lad,
Because I will defend
against this abuse. It makes me mad.
Women are not objects, do you comprehend?
It’s not okay that you slapped me.
The worst part of this act
Is the part when you ran away.
Because you knew you were wrong, for a fact!
But you did it anyway.
You still slapped me.
So, if you knew you weren’t right,
Why would you touch?
Did you mean to ignite
my anger so much?
When you slapped me.
Because you made me your prey,
I could feel weak and unable
to fight my way,
If I were less stable
When you slapped me.
But my face said it all.
“It wasn’t me!” You whimpered.
And I think I made you feel small
With my curse word.
As I quickly responded when you slapped me.
See you’d thought it out
And still acted like a jerk.
But my instinct was to shout
And not go completely berserk.
And I’m quite proud of how I responded when you slapped me.
This problem is substantial,
Not just me on one day.
It is not circumstantial,
It’s complete disarray.
That you think it’s okay to slap me.
So what can I do?
Except, in my own way,
Bring attention to
The thing that ruined my day.
You slapped me.
Although my life will go forward
And I am largely unharmed,
Don’t be misunderstood.
I am highly insulted and frighteningly alarmed
That you slapped me.
So maybe pause for a bit
Before you touch a girl’s arse.
To think about her being forced to submit.
And maybe you’ll pass.
Before you slap them.
If you contain some kind of moral,
Like “It wasn’t me!” implied.
You might save yourself some quarrel
And this behaviour might even subside.
And we can all live in hope that you won’t slap us.
But until this day arrives,
You can guarantee
I’ll fight for the lives
of people like me.
Who have been slapped by people like you.
I hope to never see you again,
But your grim face has been imprinted in my mind.
So know that I think you’re nothing but a stain
on our society and I have no more to say. Signed,
That girl whose arse you slapped.