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
