Poem for a Silent Woman
by Charley Sky Gardner (11.22.2022)*
*Charley Sky wrote this poem at 13, placing as a finalist in the National Promising Young Writers Competition
13 candles
13 lit and your innocence is gone
13 burn to represent the new identity drawn
Your body is consumed with a new life
New features now become your horns
Red like the devil
Polluted with sin
You are impure
A broken halo rests upon your shoulders
The glass shards of innocence pierce your skin
A little girl once gone
Reborn a woman
You are gasping for air
Engulfed in the smoky haze
Of a polluted city
Of eyes and voices
For the silence and respect
Which you crave
Is out of reach
Instead you struggle to find a safe space
Their eyes ignore your face
Instead, they fall to your chest
They skim your thighs
And follow your curves to your lower back
Painting your skirt with their gaze
It's above your knees so they are somehow
Entitled to stare
It declares you pretty
But
You've rejected him
Your beauty is now
Irrelevant
He names you bitch
Like a queen it is your royal title
You are a beautiful painting
That a man has torn to pieces
And yet
You are told to be grateful
For how he praised
Your exquisite colors
You should be thankful
It’s a privilege
His fingers parading your skin
His moans
Music over your no’s
A melody of lust
They discover places
That you held sacred
They are rough
Demanding of your flesh
But of course
He cannot be blamed
Because you were “asking for it”
So you are called by a different name
Slut
But no one dared ask
How you felt
While you clawed
And screamed for your freedom
While you were pinned
And drained
Imprisoned in your own bed
And the crimson stream
that once a month decorates your body
Is the excuse
For your distress
For your sensitivity
You have been told
That the boys
Who tugged at your ponytail on the playground
Liked you
So you should accept it
Society tells you that people are going to stare
And expects you to be grateful
For the ever watching eyes
Teachers tell you that your body
Is too visible
Distracting to the boys
You can’t help but wonder
Why they were looking
Little girls have to be modest
You should smile and cover up so as to not be provocative
Twirl your hair, sit there and look pretty
So you do
You start smiling
You close your mouth and bat your eyes
and stay quiet like
you were trained to do
Like a dog
Who was beaten until
she finally stopped barking
The unseen finger of a man is pressed to your lips
curving it into a beautiful grin
And you smile
and sit there and cover up so as not to be provocative
So as not to be
Too much
And you twirl your hair and look pretty
And you stay modest
And you are screaming
Inside you are howling and you are angry
And your eyes are stained with the reflection of that little girl
Who is confused
And petrified
And there's a funny word you’ve heard
3 syllables intertwined in its body
Boundaries
The dictionary defines it as “something that indicates bounds or limits.”
Yet people break down your walls
And stampede your nation like soldiers
They toy with your body
And mock your mind
Then claim to treat you equally
And as they catcall you down the street
And whistle out of their cars
You refuse to look back
You won’t smile and take it
How pathetic
To see such a women
But be blind to who she really is
For their eyes fall only to your body
They can see you
But they are truly blind
To all that you are
And
As little girls hide behind the blinds
Afraid to walk outside
Because they know
That when they leave the safety of their room
They’re now prey
to any predator walking on the street
Being hunted by the looks and whistles of men
Whose stares follow her down for blocks
And walking alone at night is an inconceivable idea
Because nothing is stopping them now
When no one’s around
It's a frenzy
With her as the target
And she knows that they will pounce
So she stays behind the blinds