by Nancy Meneely
At least two dozen women have accused Trump of assaulting them or making unwanted sexual advances. The allegations against Trump run the gamut of groping, leering at underaged pageant contestants, forcibly kissing women without permission, and other instances of assault. —Daily Kos, September 7, 2024
We who have been raped
will not find words
with gnarl enough
to let you know
how terrible it is
to face a rapist’s face
on every screen,
to hate,
to know again the horror
felt as nausea
too deep to be expelled
and grief disguised as furious
for certainties that spilled
the moment when
the sudden stranger
pulled himself away,
grief for helpless,
never wholly safe again.
How little you must guess of us
when you cry love for him.
How careless you diminish me.
will not find words
with gnarl enough
to let you know
how terrible it is
to face a rapist’s face
on every screen,
to hate,
to know again the horror
felt as nausea
too deep to be expelled
and grief disguised as furious
for certainties that spilled
the moment when
the sudden stranger
pulled himself away,
grief for helpless,
never wholly safe again.
How little you must guess of us
when you cry love for him.
How careless you diminish me.
Nancy Meneely’s first book, Letter from Italy, 1944 (Antrim House) was noted by the Hartford Courant as one of thirteen important books by Connecticut writers in 2013. It provided the libretto for an oratorio of the same name, composed by Sarah Meneely-Kyder and performed twice by Connecticut choruses and symphony orchestras. Her second book, Simple Absence (Antrim House), was nominated for The National Book Award and placed as a grand prize finalist in The Next Generation Indie Awards and the 2021 Eric Hoffer