Adamantine chains of sexual exploitation,
Domestic violence and patriarchy shackle us.
So many of us, ashamed, bear it all and keep silent.

The fate of some victims so tragic,
They were pitied even by the gods
And freed from human existence.

Like when Queen Procne and her sister Philomel
Were chased by her husband Tereus, King of Thrace,
To be captured, dismembered and fed to beasts.

Lusting after Philomel on seeing her,
Tereus promises her father to protect her,
And then in the Thracian woods, rapes her.

He imprisons her in a cabin,
Rapes her again and silences her
By slashing her tongue for threatening disclosure.

Muted Philomel weaves her unspeakable story into a tapestry
Like Arachne and sends it to her sister Procne.
The woven word finds voice, a victim statement for posterity.

Procne regrets telling Tereus that she misses her sister.
Shocked and outraged she loses her power of speech.
The sisters plot revenge: one violated, the other cheated.

They inflict the greatest pain possible on Tereus,
Cooking and feeding him Itys, Procne's son,
A mirror image of his father and his successor.

When Tereus asks for his son,
Procne points to his stomach and Philomel
Shows him Itys's head, severed.

Fleeing from the palace and the King's wrath,
Procne and Philomel are saved by the gods
Who pity them and transform them into birds.

Tereus into a hoopoe
With a crown of feathers,
A scimitar beak and a monotonous call.

Mutilated Philomel transmuted into a nightingale
Singing the most plaintive of birdsongs by day and by night
And avenging Procne, a swallow that trills of her grief and sorrow.

Instead of initiating yet another cycle of trauma through revenge,
Why not sever the ties that bind, seek justice and retribution
From the courts of law and free oneself from the prison of the mind?

Instead of living as victims or perpetrators, why not live in dignity as victors?
Let's transform ourselves, instead of waiting for Gods to intervene.
Let's sing of our suffering and redemption like the nightingale and the swallow.

-