Gisèle Pelicot re-writes the script.
She inscribes it in full daylight,
as she walks through the guard of allies,
garlanded with roses and lilies,
to sit, upright, asking why so many
heartlessly, grimly, used her body
She is over seventy years of age.
She doesn’t wear a sari or a low-cut dress
or a mini skirt or a hijab or high heels
or she not jogging along a canal or drinking too much
or dancing too wildly or not dancing at all
or doing her partner’s head in or staying out too late
or neglecting her children or putting down
their father. She re-wrote the script
to say, clearly, that it’s not about her.
It’s about the men who raped her.
He’s a plumber and he’s a teacher
and he’s a doctor and he’s a father
and he’s a husband and he’s a drinker
and he works nights and he drives a truck
and he’s an MMA fighter and he’s a GAA star
and he’s a pillar of the community
and he’s a politician and he’s a trade unionist
and he’s a businessman and he’s priest
and h’s a religious brother and he’s a guard
and he’s a scout leader and he’s an agricultural instructor
and he’s a school principal and he’s a film producer
and he’s an actor and he’s a pop singer
and he’s a rap artist and he’s a president
and he’s prince and he’s a swimming coach,
and all together, they are those who
rape and beat and exploit and murder women
and girls like Gisèle Pelicot.
Shame has changed sides.
Not all men of course. So now it’s time
for you to re-write the script
in full daylight, to ally with
all the wonderful women and girls
in our lives. Mother, sister, daughter,
friends, neighbours, community,
strangers, enemies, aliens, foreigners.
Brid Connolly has had poems published in New Irish Writing; Flare: Readings from the Sunflower Sessions; Fire: Brigid and the Sacred Feminine; Eat the Storms IV and Live Encounters: Poetry and Writing. In addition, she has had poems long- or short-listed in Fish, Anthony Cronin, Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Competitions.