Survivor Story
Miss. Andrist
Perhaps back in elementary,
Where the hearing played deaf
But kept fondling my pre-pubescent chest.
In the public pool,
Where the kids play.
The lifeguard on duty
Dived in but swam the other way.
A kid drowning,
And I—internally drowning.
Stop!
No!
Get away!
He thought it was all “play.”
A victim of abuse,
A prey in the public pool.
My screams echoed against the water,
Almost like I was being waterboarded.
Lifeguard blew the whistle at the drowning,
But I was the one who was dying.
Where the touch wasn’t reci—
I feel sterilized between my thighs.
His cold hands press,
Like an oxygen’s clasp.
The tongue he used to speak
Now molests me—
I lie, emotional.
The tongue that fornicates into my mouth,
His wetness hides
My driest senses.
