In stunned silence,
How could this be?
How could a thing like this happen to me?
I am…
Not a child.
I am…
Not a female.
And I am strong.
And yet it happened,
To me.
I, want to scream,
I, want to cry,
I, want to be angry.
And yet I sit here…
In stunned silence.
Please believe me,
Please ask me,
Please help me,
Please…
Break the stunned silence.
I am,
A strong male.
I am,
6’2″, 184 pounds.
I have,
Forty four percent muscle mass.
And yet I cannot speak,
Silenced by others,
Quieted by disbelief,
Laughed at,
By those who do not care.
But I must say something,
Because I deserve to heal,
And I no longer want to be in…
Stunned silence.
Written by Amy Marschak
I see men who are victims of sexual abuse sometimes silenced by our society and I wanted to speak up. So I wrote this poem for male survivors of sexual assault. All survivors deserve to heal. I have more ideas for healing from sexual abuse at https://healingfromsexualabuse.com/category/ideas-for-healing-from-abuse/ and a great resource for male survivors is at https://www.malesurvivor.org.
I am a survivor of sexual assault and I am also an Improv Poet, who has been writing poetry and acting since I was a little girl. You can find more of my written poems at https://www.epoemsaboutlife.com/ (and in my book “Poetry for All Those Breathing”) and my improv poems at https://www.ImprovPoet.com.