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Black Leaf

 

I was using leaves to represent something pure and natural and beautiful. Making the leaf unnatural was my way of describing the alteration that one undergoes during rape.

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These leaves are old.
They were beautiful, luxuriant     

       greens once.
Now they are old: fragile dried     

       brittle
Their life force has been             

       sapped
Their color has been altered         

       beyond belief (are they         

       really still leaves             

       anymore?)

 

One myth goes something like         

       this: a lot of times women         

       cry rape when they realize     

       that they have ‘gone too         

       far’.
Tell me, is this what these         

       leaves tell you?
These aged, cracked leaves, 
       old before their time?
 

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