I Learned It Was All Men — A Poem
Trigger Warning: mention of domestic violence.
I don’t know how to tell him why I flinch when he raises his voice.
Do I begin by explaining how we’re taught to fear the rise of a man’s pitch, because it might mean we won’t survive the night?
Should I gather the statistics that demonstrate why we say it’s all men?
They always swear they’re the exception,
But I don’t know how to tell him that I watched my mother get hit and shoved into walls by the man that was supposed to protect me.
No one had to teach me to be wary of men,
Because my own father demonstrated to me that he was not immune to the plague of patriarchy.
I want to tell him that I flinch when a man yells because I come from a long line of women who have perfected and adapted my genes,
To sound the alarm in my brain to take cover,
Because I come from a long line of men who swore they were the exception.
I’m haunted by a long history of holes in walls and uncontrollable anger.
- Pain feels like love if it’s the only thing you’ve come to know.
