The Wardrobe's Best Dressed: We Will Not Be Silenced edited by Christine E. Ray, Kindra M. Austin, Candice & Louisa Daquin Rachel Finch

TW: Rape

Safety at Age Eleven

Wilda W. Morris

Grandmother would have kept me

safe had she known her beloved nephew

visiting from Kansas would trap me

on the basement stair and touch me

in the wrong places. I kept her safe

from heartbreak by not telling.

And Mother would have kept me safe

had she suspected. She’d warned me

about strangers, told me where to kick

if I needed to get away, but she was at work

and had too many worries already

so I kept her safe, too.

I didn’t go to the basement again

until he was back on the west-bound train.

And until now, I never told anyone.

This selection comes from the book, We Will Not Be Silenced, available from Indie Blu(e). Purchase your copy here! Our curator for this selection is Nilsa Rivera .

We Will Not Be Silenced: The Lived Experience of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Told Powerfully Through Poetry, Prose, Essay, and Art is the brainchild of Kindra M. Austin, Candice Louisa Daquin, Rachel Finch, and Christine E. Ray. The four indie writers and survivors felt compelled to organize a response after wide-spread, highly publicized cases of rape, sexual harassment, and misconduct. They chose to advocate, educate, and resist through art. The editors opened submissions for just two weeks to women and men around the world. The response from writers and artists was overwhelming: the final anthology includes 166 pieces of writing and art from 95 contributors around the globe.