RAPE UNIVERSAL

“rape” 
the word automatically connects
with brutalising acts of prurient sex
and we focus on the physical violation
images of blood, murder, mutilation
pierce our eyes with shame and horror
at the act of love turned to torture;
act essential for all life – perverted; 
all are sullied; all defiled;
all protest and demonstrate
against their vulnerability
against the depravity
against the hordes of men
for whom the penis is a weapon

but eyes wide shut, and in silence,
we give ourselves to raping violence  
everywhere, every minute of every day;
not individual, sexual, obvious rape;
but pervasive rape, persuasive rape
rape of the mind, rape of the soul
by those to whom we give control                                         

they smile at us from television sets
catching us in their commercial nets
conditioning us to getting and spending;
and in co-operation with big businesses,
assist in the economic rape of masses

politicians with smiling promises
once elected, forget their pledges
in the race to rake in the takings
of their positions of power;
corruption: the gang rape of voters
by political-industrial leaders 

all wars of invasion–intervention
nothing more than rapist abduction;
slavery, holocaust, foreign domination –
rapist signatures of power perversion;
war lords, militias, soldiers, celebrate
conquest and victory in subjugating rape;

powerful multi-national forces
plundering natural resources
raping the environment
decimating whale, rhino, elephant,
deforesting in wild abandonment
ruthless international plutocrats
shutting down earth’s thermostat

rapists of the upperworld
no different
from rapists in the underworld
abducting and trafficking
men, women, and children
to use, abuse and abandon

rape,
nurtured in all aspects of culture
produces
rabid rapists in every sector;
rape-murder predominant feature
of any country’s history –
making all of history,
primarily,
a record of rape and murder

penile rape
blatant expression
of truth in repression