So we’re all playing “Would you rather …”, you know like “Would you rather be too short or too tall/Would you rather be half deaf or half blind …”, and this skinny model chic says:
So. Like. Would you rather be fat? and the room is already cringing….
… or raped?
And this is how it goes with dumb chicks, right? They rattle on about silly shit
and don’t even think before they speak. They say the first stupid cluck of a thing
that comes to their tongues, right?
And everyone is like Oh Jesus.
And she goes: Well, I mean. Cause like. If you’re fat
everyone can see it.
But if you’re raped.
Then it’s only
on the inside.
and how the room responds – which they do – respond, cause she says:
Well? I mean. Like. You have to choose one.
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This poem originally appeared in the July 2012 issue of B O D Y.
________________________________________________________francine j. harris is originally from Detroit and has recent work appearing in Rattle, Ploughshares, Hanging Loose, and Meridian. Her first collection, allegiance, was published in the spring of 2012 and reached the number one spot on the national poetry bestseller’s list within a month of publication. She is a Cave Canem and Callaloo fellow, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and received her MFA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she lives, teaches and writes.
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Read more work by francine j. harris:
A short story in B O D Y
Two Poems in Mead
One Poem in Rattle
One Poem in Boxcar Poetry Review