ADVENT DAY 25 * KATHRYN MOCKLER!

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED 
APRIL 30 – MAY 31, 2014 

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN WILLENHALL AFTER SHE WAS FOLLOWED HOME FOLLOWING A NIGHT OUT.

POLICE ARE MAKING ENQUIRIES AND APPEALING FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED LAST NIGHT. 

A MAN HAS BEEN ARRESTED AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN THE MCCOWAN ROAD AND MCNICOLL AVENUE AREA THURSDAY, MAY 29.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND ATTACKED BY A GANG OF MEN IN A WEST CORNWALL TOWN, POLICE SAY.

DETECTIVES ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AS SHE WAS WALKING HOME IN GLOSSOP.

RICHLAND COUNTY DEPUTIES ARE INVESTIGATING AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE WALKING HER DOG.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY TWO MEN TUESDAY NIGHT IN A FIELD OFF VERSAILLES ROAD, LEXINGTON POLICE SAID.

POLICE ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES TO COME FORWARD AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON A TRAIN BETWEEN CENTRAL AND PENRITH EARLIER THIS MONTH.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN MELBOURNE LAST NIGHT, JUST ONE WEEK AFTER TWO OTHER WOMEN WERE ATTACKED IN THE SAME AREA.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AS SHE SLEPT ON A TRAIN AFTER ENJOYING A NIGHT OUT WITH FRIENDS IN LONDON. 

POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR A SUSPECT AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN DOWNTOWN REGINA OVER THE WEEKEND.

VANCOUVER POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED JOGGING THROUGH STANLEY PARK MONDAY MORNING. 

SOUTH WALES POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING ALLEGATIONS A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN A VW VAN IN JERSEY MARINE.

ACCORDING TO POLICE, ON THURSDAY, MAY 1 AROUND 10:30 P.M., A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON COMO LAKE AVENUE NEAR WESTWOOD STREET.

POLICE IN CORBY ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN THE TOWN.

HYDERABAD: DESPITE CLAIMS OF THE CYBERABAD POLICE OF INTENSE PATROLLING ON THE OUTER RING ROAD (ORR), A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED, STABBED AND LEFT TO DIE ON THE EIGHT-LANE CARRIAGEWAY AT HIMAYATSAGAR LATE ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED NEAR WASTE GROUND IN CORBY WHERE A DOG WALKER WAS STABBED JUST DAYS EARLIER.

POLICE APPEAL FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON A TRAIN BETWEEN CENTRAL AND PENRITH.

THE SEARCH IS ON FOR A SUSPECT, AFTER POLICE SAY A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN STORM LAKE, IOWA.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN BRUNSWICK ON FRIDAY NIGHT, A WEEK AFTER TWO WOMEN WERE ATTACKED IN THE SAME AREA AFTER LEAVING SYDNEY ROAD BARS.

POLICE ARE APPEALING FOR INFORMATION AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILST TRAVELLING ON A BUS TO HYDE.

TORONTO POLICE ARE ASKING THE PUBLIC FOR HELP IDENTIFYING TWO SUSPECTS AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND HELD AGAINST HER WILL FOR 28 HOURS LAST WEEKEND.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE WALKING ON A STREET IN CENTRAL QUEENSLAND AT THE WEEKEND.

COQUITLAM MOUNTIES ARE HUNTING FOR A SUSPECT AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED MAY 1ST.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN EDINBURGH LATE LAST NIGHT.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AS SHE WALKED IN STRETFORD.

WOMAN DRAGGED, SEXUALLY ASSAULTED NEAR HUMBOLDT PARK.

POLICE HAVE ISSUED A FRESH APPEAL FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN HER HOME BY AN INTRUDER LAST WEEK.

POLICE SAY THAT A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED EARLY YESTERDAY IN BED-STUY.

RESIDENTS IN SOUTH SUBURBAN MATTESON ARE ON ALERT AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED NEAR A METRA TRAIN STATION.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED THIS MORNING ON ST. ANDREWS ROAD AS SHE WALKED HOME FROM A NIGHT OUT.

DURHAM — POLICE SAY A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A MAN WITH A KNIFE LAST WEEKEND, AND THEY ARE ASKING THE PUBLIC'S HELP IN FINDING A SUSPECT THE WOMAN DESCRIBED.

HAMILTON POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR A MALE SUSPECT AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE LEAVING THE HAMILTON-BRANTFORD RAIL TRAIL. 

POLICE HAVE LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN GLASGOW'S KELVINGROVE PARK.

POLICE ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES TO COME FORWARD AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN WILLENHALL OVER THE WEEKEND.

POLICE ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING IN CHESTERFIELD.

A YOUNG MAN IS BEING SOUGHT BY POLICE AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN PALMERSTON NORTH AT THE WEEKEND.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT ABOUT 4:30 A.M. IN ROOM 1 ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF VISINTAINER'S MOTEL EARLY TUESDAY MORNING.

POLICE ARE ISSUING AN E-FIT LIKENESS OF AN OFFENDER, AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN IPSWICH AS SHE WAS WALKING HOME THROUGH A PARK.

POLICE SAID A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT 4 A.M. IN THE 100 BLOCK OF OAKLEIGH AVENUE.

POLICE ARE URGING ANYONE WITH INFORMATION TO COME FORWARD AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON A BUS FROM ERDINGTON.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE USING THE PATH.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN WALKABOUT #BRISTOL IN EARLY HRS OF LAST SUNDAY - IF YOU KNOW THIS MAN PLS CALL 101.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT THE RIVERWALK THURSDAY NIGHT.

POLICE TELL THE DEMOCRAT-HERALD THAT A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY AN ARMED MAN IN ONE OF THE BREAK-INS, AND IN ANOTHER A 6-YEAR-OLD BOY WOKE HIS MOTHER TO TELL HER SOMEONE WAS IN THE HOUSE.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AROUND 10:45 P.M. MAY 17 AFTER BOARDING THE TRAIN AT WILSHIRE/WESTERN STATION. 

IN ONE MONTH, STUDENTS RECEIVED FIVE E-MAILS ABOUT CASES INCLUDING ONE IN WHICH A 61-YEAR-OLD MAN GRABBED A STUDENT IN THE LIBRARY AND ONE IN WHICH A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A MAN SHE DIDN'T KNOW IN A CAMPUS RESIDENCE.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND THROWN OUT OF A MOVING TRAIN NEAR MANDYA ON THE WAY TO MYSORE TWO YEARS AGO.

SACRAMENTO POLICE SAY A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED LATE SATURDAY NIGHT NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF FOLSOM BOULEVARD AND BICENTENNIAL CIRCLE.

IN JANUARY, A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT A DANCE PARTY WEST OF CAMPUS. THAT SAME MONTH, THREE PEEPING TOMS WERE SEEN WEST OF UCLA.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN MELBOURNE LAST NIGHT, JUST ONE WEEK AFTER TWO OTHER WOMEN WERE ATTACKED IN THE SAME AREA.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND ROBBED NEAR THE ALBANY COLLEGE OF PHARMACY, SAGE COLLEGE OF ALBANY, AND ALBANY LAW SCHOOL CAMPUS, ACCORDING TO A LETTER SENT TO STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS ASSOCIATION PUBLIC SAFETY.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHEN AN ARMED MAN CAME INTO HER APARTMENT THROUGH A SECOND-FLOOR BALCONY DOOR.

WOMAN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN CAR PARK ATTACK. AN INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN LAUNCHED AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN SCARBOROUGH.

DURHAM POLICE SAID A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN A RESIDENCE ON ROCHELLE STREET THURSDAY MORNING.

POLICE INVESTIGATE AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN PENZANCE.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AS SHE TRIED TO GET INTO HER CENTER CITY APARTMENT ON THURSDAY NIGHT, POLICE SAID.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON APRIL 29TH BETWEEN 2:15 P.M. AND 2:30 P.M., AT A HOME IN THE VICINITY OF RANCHO BUENA VISTA HIGH SCHOOL.

POLICE SAY A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A STRANGER WHO PROVIDED HELP AFTER HER CAR RAN OUT OF GAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A “CROSS-EYED” MAN WHO FOLLOWED HER DOWN A DURHAM CITY STREET.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED BY A MAN.

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AND ROBBED WEDNESDAY MORNING NEAR AN L STOP IN THE ROGERS PARK NEIGHBORHOOD.

POLICE HAVE RELEASED IMAGES OF A MAN THEY WANT TO TRACE AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ON A BUS IN BIRMINGHAM.

POLICE SAID A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AT THE DUFFERIN STREET AND LAWRENCE AVENUE CENTRE DEC. 6, 2013.

POLICE ARE APPEALING FOR WITNESSES AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN WIGAN.

A 22-YEAR-OLD TORONTO MAN IS FACING MULTIPLE CHARGES AFTER POLICE SAY A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED AFTER ANSWERING HER APARTMENT DOOR.

THIRD WOMAN ATTACKED. A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN BRUNSWICK ON FRIDAY NIGHT.

A TEENAGER HAS BEEN ARRESTED AFTER A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN SOUTH LANARKSHIRE AT THE WEEKEND. 

A WOMAN WAS SEXUALLY ASSAULTED SUNDAY MORNING AFTER A GUNMAN FORCED HIS WAY INTO HER SUV IN BROKEN ARROW, AUTHORITIES SAID.

KATHRYN MOCKLER is a writer, poet, and screenwriter. She is the author of the poetry books The Purpose Pitch (Mansfield Press, "a stuart ross book," Spring 2015), The Saddest Place on Earth (DC Books, 2012), and Onion Man  (Tightrope Books, 2011). Her writing has been published in Geist, Utne Reader, and This Magazine, and she has fiction forthcoming in Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Found Press. Currently, she is the Toronto editor of Joyland: a hub for short fiction and the publisher of the online literary and arts journal The Rusty Toque. She teaches creative writing at Western University.

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about 

rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an 

immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape 

culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger 

conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and 

Susana Gardner.

ADVENT DAY 25 * MINAL HAJRATWALA!

SAYING IT/NOT SAYING IT 

AT THE DODGE POETRY FESTIVAL

It has stopped being possible to sleep with the windows open.

Still, by 8 p.m., everyone is home.     I recognize their furniture

& envy their arrangements.     The wood itself, cheap & light, is

just like mine,    identical

to the surface, to the leg.

He slips & calls her Jane, then stops.      —I forget, are you ‘Lynn’ 

at this event?     —Yes, she says, but I’m ‘coming out’ as Jane. 

—Your name is Jane? asks the woman who’d thought they were friends.

—Yes, says Jane.    —Why? say I.

She explains; my envy        brakes.

Published poets discourse at picnic tables under rain. Brando & macho,   

rich tourists in poor places,     to free or not to free verse,     she a quiet 40s white woman in a suit

in the jungle. Jane. The other woman says 

—Marie Howe said to replace

was          with any other verb.

—It would be interesting, she explains to Jane, for you to try to write

about rape or incest without using the words.     Jane nods,

agrees too quickly,     —Yes it would be interesting, very, it’s

interesting, would,

yes,      interesting.

I think, Surely that is how we write it.     I am home now

looking out.     Without the word we write it in the neck     & in 

the plumbing, we write it in the bright, in every tyger we write it.

The husband of Jane says,    —But,

honey, you never use those words.

Minal Hajratwala<www.minalhajratwala.com> is a poet, publisher, author, and writing coach. This poem is reprinted with permission from her collection Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment (2014), published by The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective<www.greatindianpoetrycollective.org>, a new collective press focusing on  poetry from global India. Her nonfiction epic Leaving India: My Family's Journey from Five Villages to Five Continents won four literary awards, and she is the editor of an anthology, Out! Stories from the New Queer India. Follow her on Twitter @minalh or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/minalhajratwala. 

*

Here's your chance to be a hero and bring poetry from India to the world: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-great-indian-poetry-collective/ Thank you for clicking, sharing, funding, and loving our vision of awe-inspiring global poetry! 

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about 

rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an 

immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape 

culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger 

conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and 

Susana Gardner.

ADVENT DAY 25 * NINA PURO!

DNR

After the most recent rape, K’s scared she’s more the theory of a girl 

than a girl. A girl who counts the rabbits’ heartbeats 

& only eats the broken pretzels.

Her terrible smile ground tight as the scuttle 

in her walls: she’s not sure 

if it’s squirrels, pigeon wings on tin,

bones shifting awake. I watch how she touches

her hair when she thinks nobody’s watching. 

Her hand tugs harsh at her collar

before she steps in. 

She knows she’ll get lunch & cancer, that she doesn’t give a fuck but will. We’ve learned how to pin butterflies, care less. We do sad, stupid things, then later watch younger people. 

There’s much to put in her little reliquary of belief, much outside. 

Too many fraught doorways on every block. Too little silver. The deli that one summer with those muffins. Highway where the truck broke down. Hallway where that girlfriend’s hands garlanded her waist like parrot wings. In each room, she fights the urge to leave.

At a bar, strangers start to sing a song she once loved.

All we’re not is enough. She tells herself that.

She tells herself that again. There’s the surgeon’s 

lamp, the exit wound, 

the hurricane beneath her tongue.

There’ll be years & valleys of whiskey

& variegated versions of clouds & truths.

In her orchard, a metronome.

Fruit ripens & falls & some people

sometimes eat it. Darker people gather, ship.

Between the trees, a child

coughs or maybe laughs.

NINA PURO's  work is forthcoming or recently appeared in cream city review, Harpur Palate, Indiana Review, Jellyfish, Pleiades, Third Coast, and other places. She has a forthcoming chapbook, Two Truths & A Lie (dancing girl press), lives in Brooklyn, works as the publicist for Persea Books, and is bad at thinking of clever third-person quips to put in places like this.

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and Susana Gardner.

DAY 25 * MARINA BLITSHTEYN!

an erasure of x

Negative Space

      a date

last winter, December.

They take your eyes,

your voice

     to fill the empty

spaces        between the arms

You doubt the lot will end you

    the knot            so tight

        without space

*****

We're all going to do what we need to do.

x

Seize

Take a taste

of sand.

And then

      speak             the words

God taught to you,

:

“My life is the life of just one

         and when it ends

     solve it with your                tongue.”

MARINA BLITSHTEYN is the author of Russian for Lovers (Argos Books) and $kill$, forthcoming from dancing girl press. She works as an adjunct instructor and occasionally curates the la perruque performance series. This poem is from a manuscript titled The HA.

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and Susana Gardner.

ADVENT DAY 25 * SALLY HEGGEMAN

Detachment was my lifeboat,

accept defeat and imagine my favorite colors meshing

together without getting muddy—the initial cries

subdue to the clenching of teeth. The chilling sensation

of anxious, hot breath, jars me back.

“No one will believe her anyway. She’s a slut.”

13—wore eyeliner, had kissed three boys;

I earned my title. I wanted attention and got

it—half conscious, on a dog bed. Bruised, bleeding,

runny mascara, braces; my reflection in the mirror,

nauseating. The glimmering prospect of love and

intimacy, fuck it. The next month, a new

boyfriend, 3 years older. “Babe, yu r so hot.” My

heartbeat was palpable, hands shaking, stomach

churning—I slithered out my window into darkness

to meet him; the beach was deserted. He, unaware

that I was already high, drugged me; he underestimated

me. Perhaps it was my foaming at the mouth that aroused

him, or the vomit I spewed into my lap. My skin was

pins and needles before all went black. I came to in the

hospital, 48 hours later. A Sunday.  The following Monday

marked my first day of 8th grade. I broke my silence

in October and was sent to rehab.

“Do you see what your addiction has done to you?”

It was because of the alcohol, because I

chose the alcohol. To wake each morning,

look in the mirror, be forced to stare into the eyes

of the real perpetrator, and want to kill her.

SALLY HEGGEMAN is a senior at Indian Springs School. Her favorite subjects are English and art. She plans on pursuing visual arts in college.

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and Susana Gardner.

ADVENT DAY 25 * SARAH MARCUS!

"WE CAN BELIEVE WHAT WE CHOOSE"  

Home is where I learned 

the importance of clam bakes, 

to exfoliate thin layers of skin, 

and how to be quiet. Light bulbs 

shattered easily. I took the sharpness 

and ran it down my thighs. 

Then, there is mother, 

and she says one of us has to leave.
Mother says:

It’s not safe for you to be here. 

No, you’re not safe. 

No, you make it unsafe for us.

I remember a garden, 

and the cats giving over
rabbit tails, thighs, ears, 

parts of heads for us on the front stairs. 

The taxidermy in the basement,
antlers, eyes.

The deer always watched.
The sound of my knees hitting
the brick floor of the kitchen. 

I used to ride my horse to a place 

where even the driest ground
was soaked with water when it rained. 

Out on the boulder, where I could listen 

to the road, and look back at porch-screened-in faces.
Behind them, ever more eyes.

SARAH MARCUS is the author of BACKCOUNTRY (2013, Finishing Line Press) and Every Bird, To You (2013, Crisis Chronicles Press). Her other work can be found at NPR’s Prosody: Pittsburgh Radio for Contemporary Literature, The Huffington Post, McSweeney’s, Cimarron Review, CALYX Journal, Spork, Luna Luna, and Marie Claire, among others. She is an editor at Gazing Grain Press and a spirited Count Coordinator for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She holds an MFA in poetry from George Mason University and currently teaches and writes in Cleveland, OH.

Curatorial note: The following poems are a response to a call for poetry about 

rape culture for the annual Delirious Advent Feature; the call is in turn an 

immediate response to the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” about rape 

culture at the University of Virginia. However, they are also part of a larger 

conversation about rape in poetry communities. Curated by Jessica Smith and 

Susana Gardner.