melbourne

I worked today

I enjoyed working

but I had to get home afterward

in Melbourne, Australia, a city that should be safe, but a city where we have buried too many women recently who were not safe here

raped, bludgeoned, murdered

when I was a kid at high school, I learned not to put my hands in my pockets, because I needed them to protect myself from kids who wanted to bully me

when I sailed the Indian Ocean, and hitchhiked around Kenya, I learned to open my Swiss Army Knife and have every sharp object available to attack an attacker

I should not be fearing for my life getting home in Australia, but I am

I, and I have to say I am not a wimp, am afraid to take public transport in Melbourne, am afraid to wait for a bus alone, am afraid to be a woman here

because?

Pick an answer ...