privilege
is a simple going for a pleasant stroll after dark,
not checking the back of your car as you get in,
sleeping soundly,
speaking without interruption,
and not remembering dreams of rape
that follow you all day, that wake you up crying,
and privilege
is not seeing your stripped, humiliated body
plastered in celebration across every magazine rack,
privilege
is going to the movies and not seeing yourself
terrorized, defamed, bettered, butchered
seeing something else
privilege is
riding your bicycle through town without being screamed at or
run off the road,
not needing an abortion,
taking off your shirt on a hot day in the crowd,
not wishing you could type better just in case,
not shaving your legs,
privilege is
having a good job and expecting to keep it,
not feeling the boss’ hand up your crotch,
dozing off on late night-night busses,
privilege
is being the hero in the T.V. show, not the dumb broad,
living where your genitals are totemized not denied,
knowing your doctor won’t rape you
privilege is being
smiled at all day by nice, helpful women,
it is the way you pass judgement on their appearance with majestical authority
the way that you face a judge of your own sex in court and
are overrepresented in Congress
and are not assaulted by the police
or used as a dart board by your friendly mechanic,
privilege
is seeing your bearded face echo through the history texts
not only of your high school days but all your life, not being
relegated to a paragraph every other chapter,
the way you occupy entire poetry books and
more than your share of the couch unchallenged
it is your mouthing smug, atrocious insults at women
who blink and change the subject - politely.
privilege
is how seldom the rapist’s name appears in the papers
and the way you smirk over your "Playboy"
it’s simple really, privilege
means someone else’s pain, your wealth
is my terror, your uniform
is a woman raped to death here or in Cambodia or wherever
wherever your obscene privilege
writes your name in my blood, it’s that simple,
you’ve always had it, and that’s why it doesn’t
seem to make you sick at the stomach,
you have it, we pay for it, now
do you understand?
Author Unknown