Ntozake Shange...read this n be ashamed .

With No Immediate Cause

every 3 minutes a woman is beaten
every five minutes a
woman is raped
every ten minutes
a lil girl is molested

yet i rode the subway today
i sat next to an old man who
may have beaten his old wife
3 minutes ago or 3 days/30 years ago
he might have sodomized his
daughter but i sat there
cuz the young men on the train
might beat some young women
later in the day or tomorrow

i might not shut my door fast
every 3 minutes it happens
some woman's innocence
rushes to her cheeks
pours from her mouth
like the betsy wetsy dolls have been torn
apart
their mouths

menses red & split
every
three minutes a shoulder
is jammed through plaster and the oven door
chairs push thru the rib cage
hot water or
boiling sperm decorate her body

i rode the subway today
& bought a paper from a
man who might
have held his old lady onto
a hot pressing iron
i don't know
maybe he catches lil girls in the
park & rips open their behinds
with steel rods
i can't decide
what he might have

i only
know every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes every 10 minutes
so
i bought the paper
looking for the announcement
the discovery
of the dismembered
woman's body
the
victims have not all been
identified
today they are
naked and dead
refuse to
testify
one girl out of 10's not
coherent

i took the coffee
& spit it up
i found an
announcement
not the woman's
bloated body in the river
floating
not the child bleeding in the
59th street corridor
not the baby
broken on the floor
there is some concern
that alleged battered women
might start to murder their
husbands & lovers with no
immediate cause"
i spit up i vomit i am screaming
we all have immediate cause

every 3 minutes
every 5 minutes
every 10 minutes
every day

women's bodies are found
in alleys & bedrooms
at the top of the stairs
before i ride the subway
buy a paper
drink coffee

i must know
have you hurt a woman today
did you beat a woman today
throw a child across a room

are the lil girl's panties
in yr pocket
did you hurt a woman today
i have to ask these obscene questions
the authorities require me to
establish
immediate cause

every three minutes
every five minutes
every ten minutes
every day.