telling me not all men have bad intentions doesn’t do anything to reassure me. after i walk away from you, nothing will have changed. i will still be scared to leave my house after sundown, i will still find comfort in keys resting between fingers, i will still question the intentions of every man i know, i will still wonder when i am to become a story meant to warn other people’s daughters, & i will still cry when i turn on the television to find yet another man getting away with well— what they always seem to get away with. i am not the one who has to change the way i think or the way i act.
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