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Poetry by Kelsey Taylor
Dear Crime Shows
Thank you
for showing the world
a glamorized version of trauma.
For making rape
a fun mystery
for viewers to solve
because bad things always get fixed
on TV. Failing to accurately portray
the nights without sleep,
the triggers. For every trauma casualty
has something that will bring up an unwanted
flashback that places us back
in time, even if just for a moment.
It took me years
to stop scanning
the lettering on white vans, to stop
my heart from racing
anytime a floorboard creaked.
A friend of mine says
she wishes for a more tragic life
one with stories of sexual or physical abuse
because that’s the way you help
people. That’s the way you get
people to listen.
She did not know
that most victims
spend our whole lives
in silence. Too afraid to speak
for it’s only real
if we can say it out loud.
People like me don’t
confess. Don’t admit
to what happened. I spent years
of my life learning
to not talk. Learning to
forget. I forgot how to speak
with any substance. Forgot
that I wasn’t supposed to
remember, this is the part you don’t
tell your viewers.
Actors solve crimes
with easily packaged evidence
that always adds up,
always posts to someone, but
real monsters aren’t caught
within the parameters of 42 minutes
they hide behind
disguises like father
or brother
and most of us wait
our entire lives
for a verdict that never comes.
I Wish:
To be a Snake, if only
for the ability to shed
my own skin.
To be a Goldfish, if only
for the ability to forget
in three seconds.
To be a Tiger, for
I’d have known that humans
are both predator and prey.
For the People Who Have Been Called Broken
You are not
broken. You are
jigsaw with a few missing
pieces. Abstract,
but they just don’t
get it.
Note: "Dear Crime Shows" was previously published by Words Dance.
Born and raised in the PNW, Kelsey Taylor is a former Figure Skater with a fear of falling who has traded in her skates for poetry slams and leotards for leather jackets. She is currently the Senior Poetry Editor of Persephone’s Daughters. She is the author of But I Haven’t Even Opened My Mouth, which can be purchased here.