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The slabbed ceiling tiles are becoming the patio slabs of my childhood home. I'm highly strung in more ways than one, trying to send my mind elsewhere, but half-buried memories insert themselves, sliding in with the speculum. Five years old, the too-close cuddling, pressing and rubbing his p***s playing peek-a-boo through dressing gown folds, making it into a giggle-game, little girl's soft p**n soft play. Just relax and think of your happy place... The farm across from my childhood home, down a flower-filled lane, where the only cock was the one that crowed, heralding dawn's rising gold. A female private place has always been a male happy space. So many times screwed, my eyes screwed shut. Society closing a collective eye to penetrations of private pain while the shy cervical eye is being forever forced open. So much of female is invasion. The probing beak of a speculum, a metallic bird of prey unfolding coldly inside me; my stirruped legs pale as pork fat and stormclouded with bruising. Clinical cold insertions, grainy snow on a sonograph screen, transvagin*l transducers, my womb a hollow tomb, a teardrop shed for what has always bled and what has always been. Wondering if I can ever be whole in a fragmented world where wherever there's a hole it has to be filled. The medical talking down as if to a child: your fibroid's got a little friend. All the talking and focusing down, spiralling downwards, always downwards, pushing down, bearing down, everything focused down there. So much of female is invasion, suffering and pain. Sharp, penetrative words like polyps, precancerous cells. Internal weather changes, temperatures rising and dipping. Scarlet menstrual storms, cruel crimsons of cramps and contractions, all the stretching and tearing and stitching, the endless tampons, pads and swabs - female is unsanitary is what they proclaim. Society wants female sweet-scented, smooth, above all clean. Sonograph gel seeps between my legs, sticky as seminal fluid. The sonographer is brusque, bored, has seen and done it all before, and is too jaded and weary to offer me a paper towel. Fifteen minutes in/inside and the slabbed-patio ceiling is disappearing. Half-buried memories slide out again with the speculum. I'm in a safer space, a natural, fuzzy, unfilled place, where nothing invades, and everything and everyone comes softly, gently, like a poem at 3 a.m.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2025




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Date: 3/23/2025 7:26:00 PM
Love your way Charlotte - warm, sincere hugs!
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Date: 3/20/2025 12:40:00 AM
Heck Charlotte. Every time you write you draw me in with your brave heart wrenching words. I feel feelings of horror and upset, anger and so much more having read this. It's such a skilled write that leaves a major impact: "where the only cock was the one that crowed, heralding dawn's rising gold." This is writing of the highest order. Kudos to you with as much empathy and sympathy as this poet can possibly give without ever having experienced anything so horrifying. Cheers - Gary
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Date: 3/14/2025 12:26:00 AM
Powerful and inpactful work - you are so brave to write like this. You are a gifted writer, Charlotte.
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Date: 3/11/2025 4:32:00 PM
Dear Charlotte, Welcome Back!! Wow, so raw, unflinching, and powerful beyond words. Charlotte, my heart aches reading this, every line pulsing with truth too often silenced, with pain too deeply familiar. Your words don’t just speak; they bleed. I see you, I feel you, and I honor your voice. No one should bear such invasions alone. Sending you strength and light. Spring Blessings, My Dear Friend, Daniel
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Date: 3/11/2025 7:11:00 AM
I felt many emotions reading this - anger, momentary sorrow, then this bone-deep grief that I realize has lasted longer than the length of any poem, and then finally just plain sadness. The invasion you describe is something that is rooted as a fear deep in my subconscious and I imagine lies in many women but to fight through that fear and produce a masterpiece and have the courage to showcase it to the world? It's inspiring. Thank you. I say this as a fellow woman and human. Thank you.
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Date: 3/11/2025 6:48:00 AM
Ok I'll admit I read this the other day and resisted commenting because it made me nauseous. But then you think, if it makes you nauseous reading about it what must it have been like for the victim? All I can say is my prayer is for healing. Truly
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Date: 3/10/2025 5:29:00 PM
As a man this piece is horrifying. The truth is even more explosive and rage-inducing. I want to enwrap you in a 60"x72" quilt, snuggle and spoon, and whisper this will never be you life again, e v e r. Nor for anybody else!!! $#!+ dam!!!!! God hurry.... =;o(
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Date: 3/10/2025 12:59:00 PM
Dear Charlotte, I never fail to experience a visceral response to your poems, and this potent, poignant poem is definitely deeply felt on many levels. I can't help but feel empathy, fear, rage, a knot in my stomach, empathy, rage, relief.. and amazement at your penetrating poetic gift for infusing my being with all these feelings all at once. Such an intimate portrait delivered in soft to sharp focus. A fav for me. Warmest wishes my inspiring poet friend.. ~Susan
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Date: 3/10/2025 11:06:00 AM
Young kids and females, definite prey for the depraved. I try and avoid doctors like the plague, which is probably good, cos I hear it takes about six months to see one. I would imagine woman lie back in doctors couches countless times through their lives, and having being abused, that must bring its own trauma back. Next time you wake up at 3am, count sheep, or like me, count how many times you've been dumped.
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Date: 3/10/2025 6:02:00 AM
Charlotte, courageous, holding back nothing. Besides the damage done by monster-intruders, we all have been violated as a female…so right! My sis told me she is done…14 years younger than me…a right of passage…I smile as if she just entered puberty, but better. Your poem is potent, important and well done!
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Date: 3/9/2025 4:42:00 PM
Powerful poem Charlotte. Sad, I can empathize. My sibs and I were abused in every way shape and form. I know exactly what you are saying. Thanks for being brave enough to write this poem.
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