The Girl I Wasn't

For Karina Vetrano (Murdered 8/2/16 Queens, NY) & Vanessa Marcotte (Murdered 8/7/16 Princeton, MA)

What was it

That split us in two

On the edge of the blade

I fell on one side,

You on the other

I was there, too

With his hands on my throat, squeezing

My vision darkening

My death the prize in his mouth

Who would ever know, what I saw, what I felt?

No one!

My corpse, in a field,

“Raped and strangled?”

No!

I’m telling you,

It was only a question of a millimeter

A fraction of a fraction of a breath

The vise just missed my windpipe

He blinked, maybe he sneezed, at just the wrong moment,

Enough for me to kick him in the nuts

And run

I survived

A woman, cut in two

The other half of me

Is still in the fields

With you