“What Is the Medicine for Rape” by Trina Porte
last week at the acupuncturist
while tiny needles helped my qi unblock
the doctor told me that the chinese
view the inside of the body
as a garden with a waterfall flowing through
next week i want to ask him
do the chinese have a word for rape
what is the character for it and
does a spot in the garden die
or does the waterfall wash it away
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Trina Porte’s writing has been published in Edgewise, Evergreen Chronicles, Dust &
Fire, RATH, Photography Quarterly, I Love You Greene, Zephyrs, Perfect 8,
Chronogram, Rain and Thunder, and the anthologies A Slant of Light, Nickel Empire,
lifeblood, gatherings, and Just Like A Girl. She loved reading at Cornelia Street Café,
BAAD, Brecht Forum, Makor, and Bluestockings in New York, Patrick’s Cabaret, Blue
Moon, Intermedia Arts, Vulva Riot, and Dyke Night in Minneapolis, and The Haunted
Bookshop in Iowa City. Favorite public library readings include New Lebanon,
Stephentown, and Woodstock NY, and Minneapolis MN. Her work is archived in the
collections of Booklyn, Poets House, and the Minnesota Historical Society. In being a
lesbian feminist activist, she is privileged and proud to have known Andrea Dworkin,
and to work toward ending racism, anti-semitism, and violence against women while
building compassionate community. She lives in Minneapolis, and makes a fine genoise.
