Where do these women go when they die, these
Women who are like me
like how I used to be before
I became rooted in stinkless rock?
“Previvor” is for the catch of an early dusk
before it settles, or
the trespass of the moon before dark
A champion equals a survivor in the pressing
Previvor foxes it first
unless
the thing is rape
you smell on me an anger appropriate, yet
My words touch you chaffingly, they
aren’t real:
inappropriate for think, hear or feel
because
the word is rape
I could not have been a previvor of violence
because the dread blossom grew
not in me but in
you
Photo Credit: alubavin Flickr via Compfight cc
Virginia Petrucci
Virginia Petrucci is a writer and artist in Ventura, CA. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Recipes and How-To’s (Red Flag Poetry) and The Salt and the Song (Headmistress Press). Her work has been featured in Best New Writing, Flash Fiction Magazine, Avalon Literary Review, Flash Fiction Online, and others.