Mouthpiece

 

This is my mouth

These are my teeth

This is my tongue

Gums

Lips

Saliva

Tape it shut

Fill it up

Dry it out

Whatever you do

Keep it quiet

So you can continue to tell my story

So you can continue

To speak for me

So you can continue

To be the voice for the voiceless

Because like a cow or a dog

I, of course, have no voice

Trafficked

Abused

Coerced

These are the words you love

You feminist abolitionists who,

Even when I tell you why

Even when my colleagues and I

We use our voice

You go on spreading your misinformed lies

Tell me that

I only feel the way I do

Is because I am damaged

Brainwashed and broken

You can’t see

How is what is not right for you

Might be perfect for me.

My clients aren’t the danger

The men I meet in hotel rooms and I

Are mutual healers

Accepting each others fetishes and existence

The danger is you

Ever present mouthpiece

No ears, just crocodile tears

Spreading the stigma

That women like me

possess no sense of self or self respect.

We’re all addicted, diseased, have early deaths

Instead of listening

to the diverse reality of us

Our mixed backgrounds and experiences

Mouthpiece with no ears

Puckered lips

You are just a big asshole, really

Trying to control me

And legislate my sexuality away

What about you?

How much do you get paid?

Don’t you feel degraded by your job?

How can you be a feminist and do what you do?

Don’t you worry about finding someone to love you?

How does it feel,

this interrogation by a stranger?

And why should it matter what I answer?

You have already formed your opinion about ‚my kind of woman‘

Maybe instead of being my mouthpiece

You should focus on making a space

For me to use

my mouth.

-Hannah Morgenstern