when is it enough? - an original poem
When is it enough?
When should we do something?
When the boys that follow her to her classes
Move from standing three inches away
To shoving her against the wall?
When the girl who claims
A boy has been stalking her
Ends up with a black eye
Because he was sick
Of her saying "no"?
When is it enough?
Isn't that enough?
Isn't the brokenness of the victims,
The mental harassment,
The physical fear,
enough?
What people write off as flirting
Sends a girl into a panic,
Because one time
She had accepted the flirting
And was manipulated,
And has that lesson
Burned into her brain.
When is it enough?
What people consider as "boys being boys"
Scars an eleven year old girl
Who has been hit
Because a male classmate
Wanted to kiss her
And she said no.
And it's not just women.
When is it enough?
When does the boy who likes art
And has been saying
His classmates attacked him
Get listened to?
When does the boy
Who was held at knife point
And raped
Get identified as the victim he is?
When do people
Who get abused––
Mentally
Or physically––
Get identified as victims
And defended
Instead of blamed?
When is it enough?
Enough has passed a long time ago,
Yet nothing has been done.
When a boy
Walked into a school he did not attend
Unnoticed
And faced no obstacles
As he took a girl
And raped her––
And all that is done
Is increasing security
Instead of punishing him
And teaching boys
That rape is not something
That we will tolerate.
When is it enough?
Why do we teach victims
That is is their fault,
They asked for it,
They should have protected themselves,
And they shouldn't have been alone?
Why don't we teach agressors
That it is their fault,
That what they do is wrong,
They crossed the line,
And they deserve punishment?
When is it enough?
It is enough
When victims are told
Everything that happens to them
Is their own fault
And
It is enough
When criminals are told
Everything they do
Is simply them being them.
Is it enough.
We must do something.
~Olivia Ann
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