Poetry:
Bonnie
Billet
Dr Larry Nassar
when you stand up to speak
you’re sucker
punched
told you don’t
understand
‘the nuanced difference between sexual assault
and an appropriate
medical procedure’
he pawed your small girl tits
he twisted his fingers
into your cunt
indifference
gave the doctor all the time
he needed
wearing 4 pairs of underwear
and having your mother
in the office
doesn’t stop the abuse
you find yourself outside
alone
no man can hear you
the wind knocks you down
no one examines the complaints
that go back for years
the FBI
doesn’t call
finally you speak
in open court
holding your sister’s hand
one
of one hundred and fifty-six women
standing in front of your parents
and the tv cameras
wishing you’d done something different
wishing you’d taken a gun
with you
Bonnie Billet wrote through high school into her thirties, during which she was published in several journals, most of which are no longer publishing, and in Poetry. She started writing again after she retired from the small gardening company she ran with her husband. She has since been published in several journals including So To Speak, Yes, Poetry, and Rhino.
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