"FACINGFACES 2002 - 04" SELECTED POETRY (Part 2)

Violation

My only crime is my youth.
Are you jealous?
Or just covetous.
My body is mine, from
infancy till adulthood.
That's the way
it's supposed to be.

But now as I touch
the remaining shards
of my womanhood,
I rage as you drag me
screaming
through the woods.

My head hits a stone,
cracking my skull.
I bounce over a rock
severing my spine,
breaking my bones.
The law will not help.
It is made up of you.

You gouge out my eyes
so I cannot see you
tearing out my flesh,
claiming it for your own.
In my mind's eye
I see only Momma,
my only-ever anchor.

Momma! I am losing
ownership of my body.
My identity, barely formed,
is stripped away from me.
I call to my sister to Run! Run!
There is no more hope for me.
But there is hope for her.

I am six.
She is only three.

--

Bruises

Under the shroud
Lie the blue bruises
Piled on top of each other
Like boxes in a clutter.
There just isn't enough space
On her thin pallid face.

They crowd about,
Comparing shades,
Who'd been harder hit
And who'd been just a graze.

The day comes
When they become
A single purple mass,
Result of a hand's
Unrepentent rage.

That same day
She picks up the axe
And hacks off
Both his arms and his legs.

His face remains unscathed,
She wants him to watch
Her quick hands and
The carving knife
And be amazed.

Christina Sng - Usa

("Bruises" originally appeared in Lunatic Chameleon, and was
subsequently reprinted in Cemetery Poets: Grave Offerings)