by Diana Torres, Poetry Editor
For this week's Throwback-Thursday we decided to take a glance back in the past and replay a poem from DiN's third issue in 2012 titled "Facts" by Stefanie Deveaux. We believe that this poem from our third issue is incredibly pertinent to today’s times because of the rising popularity of the MeToo movement, which was started in 2006 by Tarana Burke.
This piece is filled with hypotheticals, which is parallel to how society, as Deveaux points out towards the end, views any occurrences related to rape, sexual assault, and incest. What is mostly riveting about this piece, is that Deveaux chose to use second person point of view, which creates this personable relationship between the speaker and audience. One of the reasons that Deveaux's "Facts" is impressive, is due to the raw and cutting imagery that is done so well throughout the poem, particularly when the speaker names all these actions that are not actually done by this “he”.
The way that Deveaux plays with the form in “Facts” is so ingenious, because although from afar it may look simplistic, once the reader takes a closer look, we can see that it contains a sort of pattern. This form that Deveaux chose also juxtaposes the poem as a whole because it’s very pleasing to the eye, yet the content of the piece is so harrowing. What’s also keen about the form here is that Deveaux’s use of the slash and hyphen emphasizes each word and phrase that it encircles, which was deliberately utilized because Deveaux could have clearly italicized those words.
We thank Deveaux for writing such an intense piece and bringing awareness to sexual assault. Here at DiN, we think it's important to elevate pieces that might not typically get any attention because of their explicit content.
Facts
By Stefanie Devaux
If he didn't actually touch you
–not like /that/, anyway–
you weren't assaulted.
If all he ever did was talk
–or even if he showed you pictures–
it wasn't incest.
If his penis didn't enter your vagina
–and leave some sort of evidence behind–
it wasn't rape.
If you didn't say "no"
–if you said "yes" or nothing at all–
you wanted it.
If you were an early bloomer
–wore a bra at nine, had your first period at twelve–
you seduced him.
If you smiled or laughed or giggled
–or cried and screamed in fear–
you liked it.
And if you tried to say otherwise
–I /was/ assaulted, it /was/ incest, it /was/ rape,
I /didn't/ want it, I /didn't/ seduce you, I /didn't/ like it–
society just shook its head.
Diana Torres is from borderland El Paso, TX. She studies English at New Mexico State University and is one of DiN's poetry editors.
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