The pressure to do something
To protect the dignity and rights of
Younger generations of women
Being recruited into
Our nation’s All-Volunteer Force
Has put me in
A most unwanted predicament

Speak out

Or

Be silenced

It shouldn’t be this hard
To collect what I’ve earned
Yet the military culture
Continues to maintain an unhealthy balancing act
-Gender rights versus the status quo-

Allowing perpetrators to
Run free
And victims to be
Persecuted and unsupported

As one of the latter I say
NO
Enough is enough
So I fight

Allow myself to become
The lab rat
That I don’t want to be
And open my scars
To the scrutiny of those
Who have allowed such behavior
To continue in the first place

Yes
I do it for me first

But they
The younger generation

They give me the strength
To scurry back
Into the cage
Toward the smell of cheese
Within that crazy maze