Venus, 2008
65With No Immediate Cause
By Ntozake Shange
(pronounced en-to-zaki shong-gay)
every 3 minutes a woman is beaten
every five minutes a
woman is raped/every ten minutes
a lil girl is molested
yet i rode the subway today
i sat next to an old man who
may have beaten his old wife
3 minutes ago or 3 days/30 years ago
he might have sodomized his
daughter but i sat there
cuz the young men on the train
might beat some young women
later in the day or tomorrow
i might not shut my door fast
every 3 minutes it happens
some woman's innocence
rushes to her cheeks/pours from her mouth
like the betsy wetsy dolls have been torn
apart/their mouths
menses red & split/every
three minutes a shoulder
is jammed through plaster and the oven door/
chairs push thru the rib cage/hot water or
boiling sperm decorate her body
i rode the subway today
& bought a paper from a
man who might
have held his old lady onto
a hot pressing iron/i don't know
maybe he catches lil girls in the
park & rips open their behinds
with steel rods/i can't decide
what he might have done i only
know every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes every 10 minutes/so
i bought the paper
looking for the announcement
the discovery/of the dismembered
woman's body/the
victims have not all been
identified/today they are
naked and dead/refuse to
testify/one girl out of 10's not
coherent/i took the coffee
& spit it up/i found an
announcement/not the woman's
bloated body in the river/floating
not the child bleeding in the
59th street corridor/not the baby
broken on the floor/
there is some concern
that alleged battered women
might start to murder their
husbands & lovers with no
immediate cause"
i spit up i vomit i am screaming
we all have immediate cause
every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes
every 10 minutes
every day
women's bodies are found
in alleys & bedrooms/at the top of the stairs
before i ride the subway/buy a paper/drink
coffee/i must know/
have you hurt a woman today
did you beat a woman today
throw a child across a room
are the lil girl's panties
in yr pocket
did you hurt a woman today
i have to ask these obscene questions
the authorities require me to
establish
immediate cause
every three minutes
every five minutes
every ten minutes
every day.
Foot note: few days back I woke up with a scream and
noise of falling something …next morning, I saw a young lady with
bruise one her face…she was the girl next door.
I am just an artist, not an activist.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Oh thank you my friend!
I love the way you did contrast, the poem itself the rhythm, so beautiful next to the bluntess of the subject matter. I think the bluntness was important. And then, right there with it, the beauty of your venus and the hint of domestic violence (black eye?).
Incredible piece.
And of course, you are discussing something almost no one discusses and should... violence against women. You are indeed active in my heart, because you are truly an activist in YOUR heart.
Your wife is a lucky woman indeed.
Greetings...very well done...I believe that if this country would take people convicted of these heinous crimes and right after the verdict either execute them or ship them off to an island along with they're friends and surround it with sharks...this kind of vile human filth of mankind would all but vanish...we seem to think going to jail works...they have proven it does not.
Please visit these 2 short hubs. Idunn is a fan of mine.
Iðunn says:
7 months ago
this is extraordinary, rabi. bravo. and to me, you are an activist, and there is nothing 'just an artist' about your art. it's stunning.