Don't Voetsek The Truth Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

This word once used,
this taboo word is now
used to silence the truth
when a leader claims women
like being grabbed. They
tell the victims, 'voetsek, '
for they are lying through
their truth.

I know the humiliation of
being grabbed. I felt the
squeeze on my reed dance
twos. Clutch went the grabber
and he was gone.

Grabbed I was on a sunny day.
Not on my crotch, but who cares
where, when one man can claim
I liked it. The flood of shame,
on my teenage self, in town.

Disgusting is the unsolicited
touch, like a man exposing
himself. Shame falls on you.
One day in Mississippi, thinking
he wants to ask a question, I
lean into the car, only to find
Adam asking, where my senses
were when I knew he was naked
in the garden. Disgusting! to
be drawn into another man's
sickness. Voetsek does not
ring loud on a lonely road.
So hollow is its ring, yet so
loud the shame.

Voetsek! said a hundred times
does not make one feel better.
It does not take away the hurt.
The grabber can boast, but the
grabbed soul cries for the moment
before the deed. One semblance
of innocence now violated,
what remains of me. Yet they
say I liked it.

Voetsek! From this tree.
This me so young so innocent.
Don't talk about the pain.
Talk about me saying, 'Voetsek.'
This is a time when one can tell
a man 'Voetsek! ' When presidents
'voetsek' the truth they remain
silent and not respond to quote
unquotes on grabbing women's
crotches. It is called locker room
talk. Voetsek to the truth they say.
In this world where expletives
shall not free us, we cannot,
'voetsek, ' the truth for it is
the only thing that sets us free.