Dear W.W.A.S.P.S. Survivors

Dear W.W.A.S.P.S. Survivors,

          I believe you.

        radical sapphoq







You are the ones who lived it.
You lived the horrors and the humiliations
in Tranquility Bay.  The screams, the torture,
handcuffs, hog-tied, thrown in a box like garbage.
Your sadistic guards told you it was for your own good,
lied to you, told you your parents knew.  Told you
they were doing this so you would straighten out,
fly right, conform.  They traded blow jobs for razor blades,
and then punished you when you got caught cutting.
You are the ones who lived it.
The pain of being forgotten, dumped, betrayed.  Drop
and give me twenty, fifty, a hundred.  Eat your food,
eat your vomit, hold still I am shaving your heads.
You are not allowed to complain, to call someone,
to look out the window.  Not allowed.  Not allowed.
Not allowed.  They took from you your innocence.
Forced you to do as they say and not as they do.
Made you scrub bathroom tiles with your toothbrush
and brush your teeth with that toothbrush later.
You are the ones who lived it.  You lived it.  All that
is good in you now, all the hope that you weren't
allowed to feel, the love that betrayed you, the laughter
that died inside, your warmth, your smiles-- they took
from you so much-- they could not reach inside.   They
wanted to, they tried.  You are the ones who lived it.
All that is in you in your heart of hearts, all that is
good and powerful and strong in you, they had nothing
to do with that.  You did it.  You survived.  You found
ways to live and you are still finding them now.  I salute
you.  You are the ones who lived it.  I believe you.
I believe all of you.  You are the ones who lived it.

          radical sapphoq

Although Tranquility Bay was shut down by the authorities,
there are still teens suffering in W.W.A.S.P.S. schools, centers,
and programs.  One door closes, two more open, a third
changes its' name.  Wake up people.  No teen deserves abuse.