My brothers

who travel this world

with your masculinity

on show,

and who respond

in patterns

too oft repeated

and too little condemned,

see the person

in the woman

who stands alone

in her vulnerability.

 

Lift your souls,

my brothers,

above the murky

ground of desire

and control

that you have

allowed to form,

and imagine

the bitter pain

and the wilful

destruction

that resides

in your penis,

an instrument

that should be

a gift of love,

not a weapon

in your head

to spread

humiliation

and to create

dehumanisation.

 

My brothers,

I feel the shame

that you bring

to our sex

in the vicious

war of rape,

a global war

in which there

are no sides

and no winners,

only losers,

victims

and pain.

 

I challenge you

to question

your existence

as a man,

as a fellow

being in

this world,

and listen

to the intent

that echoes

from the words

you utter

to women

and about women.

 

Dare yourself,

instead,

to live in

the fertile and

gentle grounds

of respect and dignity

in which grow

the best of

what it means

to be human,

and the greatest

of what

it represents

to be a man.

 

20/5/2016