As I relinquished
all of my control
to the beast
that stood before me

I sweated out
every thing I wanted
to say, or do, or be
before handing myself over
to the patriarchy

Because I realized
that the beast would call me
a slut
a whore
a prude
a b****

And no one would defend me
there would be no
knight in
shining armor
this time

In this fairy tale
the knight and the beast
are one
and the same

There would be no place to hide
for the beast oozes out
of the walls
and moldings
and windows

Even the wind screams it names at me
and whistles
at things I do

As I relinquished
all of my control
to the beast
that stood before me
I realized there was
no place to run
that the beast would catch me
With one of its billions of minions

So the beast grabbed me
tormented me with its names
gave its minions their marching orders...
and made sure I couldn’t escape