Photography © Jennifer Matthews

 

Save me from what concerns me

When people tell me
‘You’re safe’
And I think ‘huh’.
When people tell me
‘You’re so very safe with me’
And I think ‘duh’.

Safety does not come from words.
Telling me I am safe
and should not worry –
is like offering a threadbare blanket
instead of an airbag
travelling treacherous icy roads
on a heart and a prayer – mine
that is.

Offering safety to me with you
staying in one place – your place.
How can all of this be safe –
It needs real world safety measures.
Not my caution thrown
into the face of the prevailing winds
of men and madness.

Women end up hurt and dying
if they throw caution to the wind.
I need independently monitored
guard rails not broken back porch
rails or swings. I will not set myself
up for plot fails, record fails, going off script
on unmarked trails fails. Returning in
body bag fails. Too many of us women have
gone that airbagless route.

Safety should feel
like holding and slowly
letting go of the reigns of
fears and earlier fails.
So I can soften my neck muscles
and lower my neck
like the horses that I ride on Sundays.

But I do know – anything you say –
words without back-up
is where safety fails.
I cannot trust mere words.
I am the only one
who can keep me safe.

Want me closer, set up guard rails.

 

Sara Stegen is a Dutch poet and non-fiction author who writes about land, family, nature, and neurodivergence. Home is a boulder-clay ridge in the northern Netherlands where her bike shed contains 8 bicycles and where she is working on a memoir about apples and autism and her first poetry collection.

Poet/Photographer Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.