Unkempt Poetry

2-12-18

"Just...don't go running around at night, okay?"
you say, voice sounding far away through the phone.
"To be safe," you hedge against my silence
like I've never been approached at a gas station
yelled at from car windows
leered at from street corners
and hell, what does night have to do with it?
Daylight never changed the perceived power dynamic
that
I am to be grabbed
to be smacked
to be fucked
to be used

And though I don't say it,
I want to tell you, boy:
night's got nothing to do with it.