Shhh! The Bluebruisepurple Shades of #MeToo

by Adwiti Haffner

It was only three blue irises ago

worship fell short

like lightning bolts of disgrace

ripples seared

inside lobes

Nuclear Power Plant

about to blow

You caught the blue poison

in your butterfly stomach

crawling like star-nosed moles

untamed blind itches

a silent scalpel

slicing open

your tongue

Neither moved

to shield your barefoot voice

against the murmur of

absent fight

Kisses landed

like pounding bullets

into the sap of your songs

making holes through

“NO”

He said

Shhhhhhh

as you awoke and swung

like a black pendulum

against his chest

hands trembling

holding

the shaft of shame

Hushed tongue

left at dusk

You summoned yourself

the sound of your skin

had not returned

from his belly, his belt, his loins

his lust

You sprang

from your wraith

wings flapping

abandoning

the salt of silence

and one by one

ripened #metoos

like lunar lotuses

from the deep cesspool

winged mouths of bristling dawn

Purge