Don't Say It If You Don't Mean It

Do your thoughts
And hurt feelings
Does your frustration
And isolation
Matter more
Than our safety?

Don't rock the boat.
Don't
Put that child
In more danger.
It does not matter
What her mother
Says about what she
Does.

No one will act.
It's par for the course.

We take it.
Like it's
Usual.
Like, of course
She will.
Like
Her daughter is
What she says
She is.

If

Nothing is
Said.

Then

Nothing
Changes.

Lives are at risk
And we side
With those
Who risk them.
We say
We are sorry
To those doing the
Harming
How is that not
The worst kind of
Alarming?

A sickness
Surrounds us,
And I am
Sick of it,
And I am
Sickened by it.

Because until more of us
Act,
More of us will suffer.

But we sit,
Paralyzed by a fear,
Because we know
This girl has no
Protection.

And we know
That hurting her
Is
Viewed as
"Understandable,
Given the circumstances."

But, ladies,
I mean it.
I don't understand this.