Back Talk: Where do we go with this?

by | Dec 4, 2017

Shoshana Bass of Sandglass Theater. Photo by Kirk Murphy.

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Where Do We Go With This?

Do we laugh to stop the pain?

Do we weep because it isn’t funny?

Do we begin to pray that certain men die?

Do we forgive or blame or both or none?

Do we not see how we’ve martyred

the ignorant and scapegoated the astute?

Must our mothers and daughters and sisters,

lacking resolution, hunker down in tragic resignation

or just arm themselves to the seething teeth?

And how are we, the men, to honor the women?

By acknowledging their everyday horror? But also

by actively hunting the men who menace them?

Can men hunting men ever be anything

but a blank check for murder and revenge?

The only way to go of course is forward,

but how do we do this when at least half

of our country is addicted to backwards?

Patience is a virtue, but not if rape is the old

and new norm. Where in the world can we go

with this and what will it take to drain

the ugliest, deadliest swamp of them all?

—Connolly Ryan, Florence

 

Correction: The photo on the staff picks page of the Nov. 30 – Dec. 6, 2017, issue (featuring a woman with a kazoo in her mouth) had incorrect caption information. The photo is of Shoshana Bass of Sandglass Theatre and was taken by Kirk Murphy. We regret the error.

Correction: The article “The Benefits of Rub-On Weed” (Nov. 30 – Dec. 6, 2017) incorrectly stated that until July 1, 2018, only medical marijuana is legal in Massachusetts. Under current Massachusetts law, it is legal to possess up to one ounce of recreational marijuana and to grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use. While it is currently legal for state-licensed dispensaries to sell medical marijuana, it will not be legal to sell recreational marijuana until July 2018. We apologize for the error.