December 2020. Submission for GRSAC who provide emotional and practical support to both female and male victims and survivors of rape, sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse. Part of the #raiseyourvoice campaign.
You, my love.
There is more power in you than you've been told.
More worth and more shine than the noose has allowed.
When the time comes,
You will soar and will rise.
Rise to your feet and breathe the sweet air
Of all that you've missed.
Your identity rumbles beneath,
It longs to be heard.
Find your words.
Find your space, then take it.
Grab it and run with it.
Run with your sisters' voices around you,
With my voice, even though we haven't met.
RUN.
Leave behind the unfeeling grip
The stale past of dictatorship
And walls and fear,
The comments, the doubts,
The spirals of panic.
Run.
There's so much out there for you.
The people you see that you long to swap with,
you'd give your seemingly tiny life to trade with, morph with, climb into their cocoon.
The pictures you see,
Want to touch, absorb, soak into its arms and disappear.
That love! To be radiating, open and free.
It's real, I promise.
It won't be perfect but you,
You will own it.
And heal.
The air is there, waiting, still.
The control is yours now, my love.
Take it and
Run.