For Leo, For Myself, For Anyone who has ever been too big to be seen
There are so many stories that demand the giant must be felled
that the small are righteous and deserving of all they can
take from the massive beast
that all the golden things are up for grabs
that the riches must’ve been ill-gotten to begin with
You colossus
You behemoth
You titan
You who can shoulder the very earth
who are you to alter this narrative?
They’re already looking for ways to discredit regular survivors
You make it too easy
Your body, its own defamation
They’ll say you are too big to have been raped
That victim is not a shirt that comes in your size
They’ll laugh at the idea of you being overtaken
say you are too much mountain for anyone to move
They’ll say you have so much weight to place behind your No
say one flick of your massive wrist would’ve brought
the whole thing to a stop
They’ll say that you must have wanted it
That in fact, you are a monster of wanting
your mammoth body laid out as evidence
for the way it feasts so greedily on the space around it
They’ll say you stand a lighthouse of untruth
in search of attention
a bitter leviathan,
and anyone who toppled you earned that conquering,
that they must be a knight, an Argonaut,
a future king coming for your severed head
Your truth sounds too much like thunder
frightens the whole village
frightens them into taking up torches and pitchforks
a swarm to chase you to the edge of the cliff
a mob come to tether you to the earth to pluck out your eyes
for what they refuse to see
They’d sooner pry open your mouth for the gold fillings
than take your word
that you were but a sleeping giant
who was not awakened nor deemed worthy
for something golden as consent.