Read until life cracks open before you
Read
Read until your eyes bleed
Read
Read until a scream bursts from your throat
Read
Read the headlines

Read until the voice inside you moves
and your mouth opens, making you speak
Of the horror. Tell us you’ve seen it.
Tell us you’ve seen the mothers with
Broken backs, their spines are bent in
the shape of their nightmares. Have you
Not seen them?

And what about the pregnant babies?
Are they not carrying their fathers’ semen?
Did you not read about the girl
whose father was her boyfriend?
Tell us you’ve at least read some of this.

Tell us you know about their hands
And how they fought a war
You know those hands carry this nation.
Tell us about how we’ve broken those mothers.