One time, I was 15 and I was at the grocery store
It was the summer before I was to become a sophomore
I had heard some lore
About the eyes of lust, sure
But I had never actually experienced them before

I went to the store
Because I was bored
And honestly
I just wanted to add to my essential oil hoard
So anyway
It was laundry day
And the only outfit that was clean
Was a spaghetti strap shirt
And some short summer shorts
I mean, come on
It was a Texas summer, what did you expect?

Back to the story
I walked into the store
And there was this old man
I want to say he was 40 or 50
Or maybe even more
And he looked at me with those lustful eyes
The ones that say
"I want you as my prize"
He looked me up
Down
And around
And he licked his lips
While he was staring right at me
He looked me in the eye
I felt like a deer in the headlights
So vulnerable
So afraid
I wanted to scream and cry

My mind drifted to my heart
And my heart drifted
To the boy that I was apart from
That summer
Who
I'll admit
I had feelings for
He could have given that man
A protective glare on my behalf
A moment the two of us could look back on
And laugh
He could have sent that man
Running for the hills
Looking for windmills
To use
To meticulously chop himself up with

But who am I kidding?
For I am defenseless alone
And this patriarchal society
Is sadly my home
One could say I was asking for it
But was I really?
That was the exact moment
When it hit me

Everything I do or say
Can
And will be
Held against me
And I hate to admit it
But in this society
I need a mate
To protect me
For the only way to fight the fire of lust
Is with that same exact fire
One could say that I'm wrong
That I'm strong
But they'd just be a liar
For there is no way
To inspire
The primitive
Masculine mind
To change its ways
For those ways
Have been set
Since the beginning of time

Patriarchy
Patriarchy
All hail man
For his way of ruling
Is through his primitive desire for sex
And through the desire of his hands
To roam into your pants
He'll go to great ends
To justify his means
And often times he won't disguise himself
He doesn't care if he comes off
As anything but clean

But
I mean
Us women are merely cogs
In the patriarchal machine
We only exist
To give men a higher esteem
Apparently we only exist
To cook
And to clean
And to gleam
Like a sunset at all hours of the day
Honest to God
Who the fuck would want to live that way?

Not that anybody cares
My body was only created
To be adorned
In immodest clothing
And big,
Shiny
Sparkly things
But, here's the thing
Nobody will listen to me
I'll just be accused
Of being a "Feminazi"
But whatever I do
In this fucked up society
I will never be allowed
To just be
Who I was meant to be
Without some jackass staring at me
Dreaming of things
Horrible things
None of which are clean

Don't act
Like I don't know
What it means
The way his eyes gleamed
Something awful
The things he wanted to do to me
Unlawful
My question is
Why can't I live my life full
Without some asshole
Thinking of me as an object
An object he can command at his own will
Something he can torment and it'll still be fine
And still be pure
Something he can buy at a store

Oh wait
That's where we were before