[POETRY] PMS

January 26, 2015

By Jayne Dough

The phone call:

“Who’s that girl in the background?!”

“…there’s no girl…”

BULLSHIT!

Smash your coffee grinder and your pitiable possessions. Scare the neighbours with my raging.

NO FUCKING GIRL?! I KNOW WHO SHE IS!

You think I don’t know where you get your dick wet?

You cheat

I cheat

Everybody fucking cheats

I know that.

But why do you have to go and get caught?

Why you hafta get caught, like a fucking little idiot,

and break our tacit agreement of secret silences?

Why do you hafta flout me

and indulge her sick fuckin’ giggles?

NO, NO.

A partnership built on shared deceit, I can live with. But one-sided lies, and bad ones, I cannot accept.

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Jayne Dough is a pseudonym adopted to honor the Toronto woman, Jane Doe, who bravely sued the police for mishandling her rape case. Although we don’t know her name, Jane Doe helped a generation of women in the city of Toronto. Jayne Dough writes as one of the many unnamed women who have endured and supported a cycle of abuse. Now coming from a place of security and peace, she wants to be outspoken about her experience. Much gratitude to The Ride or Die Project for creating a platform that embraces the intricate complexity of these issues. Much love.