The Unrepresentable: Art & Sexual Violence

nieko
mcdaniel
The poem “Acid,” which was inspired by a
heartbreak that I personally endured, is an example of
my thought process on ascertaining the root of issues
that would lead to the heartbreak between a person
and me. From critically accessing the experience to
a basic form, I identified the problem as trauma that
others have caused us in the past. Trauma can be
a cycle, in which the offended can be the offender.
In turn we can become the monsters that we most
resent. The use of the word “acid” and the types of
acid are symbolic and metaphorical. My goal in writing
the poem was to speak to the reader and say be
careful of what you do, be mindful of your actions, and
be considerate of others as you do not and would not
like others to disrespect you in any form, so why do it
to others? Acid is in a way a poem of the golden rule.
At the end of the poem, I tell the reader to break the
cycle of trauma that people are victims of.
Acid Rain
The rain pours, it burns
Feeling the scorn of outside influences
The pain from their reign, the pain of the rain
An empath
Weathering the rain, the storm, the pain with them, for them, because of them
Soaking it in
Bathing in it
Drinking it in
To take all away from them
Becoming a pool
Olympic size
Beginning to overflow
A dam, on the verge of bursting
A sponge can only hold so much liquid
Trying to wring yourself out
The only way to let it out
Is to sweat, cry, and spit it out
Until you dry yourself out
In this sense, is it unhealthy to want to achieve dehydration?
Acid Sweat
It seems from the Acid Rain that acid sweat occurs
Probably because it is hot and burns
Humidity of the air, feeling the temperature rising
Sticky from the rain, but also your own sweat
The two are mixing; it is hard to tell which is which
The pain from the rain makes you sweat, because you are weathering it
The rain pouring down is not your fault, but it makes you work that much harder
It makes you sweat
Now the burn is coming from your own skin, your own work
Putting out so much energy, and more sweat runs
It is an infection, starting from your head, spreading to your toes
You are beginning to dehydrate
The liquid running off your skin
But it is no longer just the pain of the rain
It is also the pain of your sweat
And it is because of your weathering the pain
That in turn creates your own pain from within
But pain.... Pain also creates tears
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