Click this link to hear Jerrica perform Dandelions<\/a><\/p>\nDavid is 19<\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t know anything else besides the hard exterior of his bullet proof vest<\/p>\n
And skills that those video games weren\u2019t gangster enough to teach him.<\/p>\n
David has a single mother who couldn\u2019t afford his higher education<\/p>\n
And a dream that fell into a pipe long before he even had a chance to realize he had it<\/p>\n
They turned David\u2019s skin inside out when he enlisted<\/p>\n
Told him his insides need to be just as hard as metal bullets piercing young skin<\/p>\n
No time for sissy play during war-time, they say.<\/p>\n
His mother keeps his kindergarten picture underneath her pillow<\/p>\n
And she swears, some nights she can feel him quivering<\/p>\n
Sometimes she can feel the scars under her wrists pulsating<\/p>\n
Because this isn\u2019t what she wanted for him either.<\/p>\n
I built him to be more than this, she says.<\/p>\n
Yuko is 16<\/p>\n
She doesn\u2019t know anything else besides the fragility of her own reflection<\/p>\n
And fear that is heard in her back and forth as she roams through Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n
Yuko\u2019s mother wishes she married an American<\/p>\n
So she took her dreams and turned them into seeds<\/p>\n
Implanted it inside of her womb<\/p>\n
The night Yuko was conceived<\/p>\n
Grew gardens of expectations the day she was born<\/p>\n
And blew dandelions into Yuko\u2019s hair<\/p>\n
With silent wishes for her to marry a white or black G.I.<\/p>\n
Save yourself for a soldier, she\u2019d say.<\/p>\n
Yuko remembers David<\/p>\n
She remembers walking home from school<\/p>\n
Past the bar<\/p>\n
That only rumors talked about<\/p>\n
And the whiskey on David\u2019s breath that he signed off as his excuse<\/p>\n
She can still feel the soreness in between her legs from<\/p>\n
When he took his fingers<\/p>\n
And inscribed \u201cAmerica, the beautiful\u201d deep inside her thighs<\/p>\n
As a reminder for her to know where he came\u2026on<\/p>\n
With the \u201cStar Spangled Banner\u201d blaring on his breath<\/p>\n
He took her fluid dreams he wished he had<\/p>\n
Used it as lubrication<\/p>\n
As he forced her legs wide open<\/p>\n
telling her maybe the more you spread her legs<\/p>\n
The more miles she\u2019ll gain to get out of here<\/p>\n
Out of this room<\/p>\n
With broken angels<\/p>\n
Cutting off their wings to fan the ugly out of this room<\/p>\n
With this boy who was never taught to be better<\/p>\n
And this girl<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s body never had a chance to be more<\/p>\n
David makes the mistake of looking into Yuko\u2019s eyes<\/p>\n
Just as she was desperately blinking in Morse Code to stop<\/p>\n
And suddenly, the skills he learned begins to matter<\/p>\n
He suddenly begins to understand her<\/p>\n
He starts remembering<\/p>\n
Now his kindergarten picture under his mother\u2019s pillow can\u2019t stop shaking<\/p>\n
So he took his adhesive tongue and stuck a secret apology letter over the outside of her mouth<\/p>\n
With \u201cPS: When I was a kid, I wanted to be a firefighter. Not a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the while, Yuko thinks this couldn\u2019t be it<\/p>\n
This ain\u2019t the type of soldier that mama meant<\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t give two shits<\/p>\n
About the irrelevant letter that was pasted on her face<\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t give two shits about his hidden good intentions<\/p>\n
They won\u2019t bring back her innocence<\/p>\n
No matter the effort<\/p>\n
No matter the sorry he slobbered behind it<\/p>\n
He still took his dirty tongue<\/p>\n
And cemented dead words over her mouth<\/p>\n
To keep her silent.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2009 Jerrica Escoto<\/p>\n
Source: http:\/\/usmvaw.com\/media\/dandelions\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dandelions Jerrica Escoto Click this link to hear Jerrica perform Dandelions David is 19 Doesn\u2019t know anything else besides the hard exterior of his bullet proof vest And skills that those video games weren\u2019t gangster enough to teach him. David has a single mother who couldn\u2019t afford his higher education And a dream that fell … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Dandelions: a poem about military rape”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-4806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-projects-issues-and-campaigns","tag-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4808,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions\/4808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dmzhawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}