content notice: trauma from sexual assault

(on the anxiety that lives within body and space after being sexually assaulted in the small academic community that I must still live ((and thrive)) within)

Starting again

 

It begins to swell.

Bodies and faces fill in

the spaces that were private.

I try to reason with myself

about percentages and likelihoods of

your form casting shadow

in publicprivate spaces.

I see you in real and story truths—

you’re driving around the block

buying groceries and out on dates;

Being of no consequence and

living without consequence.

But truths are embodied( , )

and of you( , )

and consequentially I am

afraid of privatepublic spaces.

Starting again each time laid bare.