Lori Desrosiers
Of Alleys and of Men
In a book I read too young
a woman was accosted in an alley
during New Year’s Eve festivities
in Time’s Square.
It read as if it was
an adventure rather than
the most frightening thing I could
think of at fourteen years old.
For years every time I had to walk
down an alley I imagined men
waiting in doorways, like the ones
who cat-called me out walking
with whistles and hey baby
while I pulled my coat close
around my shoulders,
as if that would protect me.
Nothing happened then,
only later, when someone
I loved, far from the alleys
of any city
forced himself on me
rupturing my trust
trapping me for a long time
in the alley of my fears.
I am no longer young,
and no longer afraid,
although still cautious
of alleys, and of men.
Lori Desrosiers is the author of The Philosopher’s Daughter (Salmon Poetry, 2013) and Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak (Salmon Poetry, 2016). Keeping Planes in the Air is forthcoming (Salmon, 2020). She is also the author of two chapbooks, Inner Sky (Glass Lyre Press, 2015) and typing with e.e. cummings (Glass Lyre Press, 2019) She is the editor of Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry, and Wordpeace, an online journal dedicated to peace and social justice. She lives in Westfield, Mass., and teaches in the the Lesley University MFA program.
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