Survival Techniques Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Wearing black to lament the rate of rape in
South Africa, I wear black to lament the lack
of restraint in the media and to commemorate
the sad death of Anene in the Western Cape

What a painful experience dying in this violent
way, feeling sorry for the rapist who killed her,
wondering what pain in him drove him to hand
on the pain to a seventeen-year old girl

Life imprisonment cannot obliterate the crime or
avenge Anene's death, cannot help the murderer,
living with memories of his own spiritual mutilation
and the scene of his attack on helpless Anene

Her death symbolises the spiral of murder & rape
in our world, the media bewailing her violent fate
advertise ill-clad women to induce sexual tension
in men, driven by high levels of testosterone

Moguls stoke fires causing hormone victim and
psychopath to rape and kill, it is a jungle out there
only extra care for body and child can keep us safe
with artificially stimulated men everywhere

And some women on edge, safety lies in serious pre-
cautions, the disrupted psyche zooms in on every sign
that imply sexual availability, dress to protect otherwise
we offer provocation - potential victim inviting attack

Wilful ignorance of survival techniques in the jungle we
live and have kids in, leads to tragedies, while we cannot
control the media or the monsters created, we can take
charge of our fate - teaching all how to survive happily