Salted Wounds

(free verse poem)

A young woman goes to a stranger's
house to celebrate a new begenning.
She ignores that sinking feeling.
He hands her drinks,
more than she can handle,
she blacks out.
Waking up sick and confused,
tangled under the stranger's arm.
She runs out into the black street.
half naked and lost in a dangerous
nieghborhood.
A single act of kindness from another
stranger, gives her a ride to
a friend's house.
The next day she tries to understand
what just happened,
Her friends tell her not to call the cops,
afraid they themselves would get
arrested for drugs.
She takes a bath as the pain inside
matches the pain outside.
So many bruises as she bleeds from
the humiliation inflicted.
She feels dirty.
No one actually says it but she
can hear them call her a slut in her
mind.
Taking pills to forget those accusing looks,
the guilt becomes an unwelcome guest.
She is lost and aged beyond her years in
just one night.
Nothing hurts worse than everyone's
indifference to a crime she was a victim of.
Thier disbelief is salt poured onto a fresh wound..