Missing: My Trust in Men

I say I’ve lost my trust in men

They ask me where I put it

I say it’s in the boy who stuck his hands down my skirt inside a closet

I say I can’t smile even to be polite

They ask me why not

I say because a man walked up to me to say I reminded him of the woman he put in a headlock

I say I can’t be outside at night

They say that’s ridiculous

I say tell that to the man who ran up to me on my front porch to demand I give him cigarettes

I say I couldn’t wear my uniform outside of school

They ask me why that’s a fact

I say because grown men devoured me with their eyes and followed me behind my back

I say I don’t wear low cut shirts or dresses on the street

They ask why I’m afraid

I say you don’t know what it’s like to be watched by men three times your age

So maybe I lost my trust in men

And they say I’ll get it back

But until the world can prove it, you should cut us girls some slack