She Will Not Parry



 ‘I put it to you madam that when you walked down the slim path crowded with bushes

that warm afternoon you were not seeking the taste of your neighbour’s tart berries,

rather you  were wearing a new dress that day, a dress you scrimped and saved to

buy with what little money you were given for performing servant duties for the

Donovan’s homestead. I put it to you madam that you wore that dress with intent

to arouse a hunger that was forbidden as we all know that chiffon is a brazen fabric,

not meant to be worn out in the open. Your intention was for the incident to take place,

the kissing and touching of your skin by your sheer choice, you actually didn’t say

anything at that stage, did you?’



take note this lawyer’s question was asked in 1954

similar to the ones asked in 1996

            ‘Did you slap the accused? Did you push the accused?’

asked in 2007

             ‘Did you think, at any stage of simply sliding out,

            scurrying off?’

She will not parry as she’s confined to the box of Yes or No

In 2011, promoted to ‘team leader’ by her boss with a ‘proviso’ of lunge and thrust, she copped another by his defence

             ‘You have been known to embellish for attention, haven’t you?’

She replied ‘No’ that time, but they all thought ‘Yes’

as his questions continued to shred 
The witness box is the wardrobe she fled to when she was three, it is the battered car she took

off in when she was eighteen, the dark path she walked when twenty-three, thousands more

ages and stages of life, blonde brunette ginger hair tied veiled finger-biting mascara-streaking

tissue-drenching, as she returns again and again to that time, yanking from dirt what’s truly

meant to be binned
                                     She is dressed by men

                                     thick linen covers her curves

the question still hurts
The quoted questions are informed by the way barrister’s cross-examine sexual assault survivor/witnesses in court and the research

conducted by Dr Andy Kaladelfos et al Lawyers’ Strategies for Cross-Examining Rape Complainants: Have we Moved Beyond the 1950s?

The British Journal of Criminology, 2016.