Thanks (to Rupi Kaur)

it is because of you
that I am no longer
ashamed that I’m a woman

that I can write words like
it hurt
to watch you raped
again and again
by the same man
by different men

there was nothing I could do
I was just a child
innocent yet destroyed
by the same men
that made you cry:
stop.
stop.
please don’t.
the children are watching.

By Ivana Viani

Bio:

Ivana Viani is a 4th year medical student at Harvard, and Editor-in-Chief of thirdspace, Harvard Medical School’s student-run journal of literature and the arts. She believes that reading and writing poetry can be useful tools for healing past trauma. Her poems have been published in Knightscapes and in Tuesday Magazine.