For my poem I chose to use Halsey’s poem “A Story Like Mine,” of which she recited at the 2018 Women’s March. While reading and going through this poem, I chose the most provoking words and phrases and pasted them into a time line almost. I specifically used pink paper as my background, as this is a speech supporting women who have been sexually abused. I scattered and tapered the words, only putting the year of each story all the way at the beginning of the page and the end phrase all the way at the end of the page, to show how hectic panic and frazzled thoughts were for these women in times of figuring out what happened to them and how to handle it.
When I first saw this poem recited on tv, it made me very upset. The fact that many women go through this and keep quiet or keep it very low just as Halsey did for the longest time breaks my heart. As I was reading this poem, I specifically pulled out provoking words and phrases like “he held her down” and “I’m too young to know why it aches in my thighs” in order to bring to light the fact that these assaults are happening to women at such young age and forcing them to grow up way earlier than they needed to. I then proceeded to use phrases like, “take it as a compliment” and “I can’t tell anyone at all” to further bring to light the stigma that women are supposed to keep quiet about these assaults that happen to them. I then finish with more positive phrases, like “love your neighbor and “be a voice” to encourage women to speak up, just as Halsey did at this women’s march. This encourages women that you can win the battle against these assaults and that it is okay to speak up against these assailants, which is why I end my poem with her final phrase, “there’s a war to be won.”
-Sophia Chimenti