Triggered

Photo by Ja Kubislav on Unsplash

Content Note: Rape/Intimate Partner Sexual Violence.

Listen to "Triggered."

What struck me most about the scene in Mad Men when Greg rapes Joan on the floor of Don Draper’s office her face a frown eyes open but for blinking body pinned under the man who claimed to love her was the camera’s slow pan to the couch side table and lamp. Because I can’t be sure of the day the month or even the year my first love pinned me under his body on the bed we shared face down arms behind my back eyes wet with tears. What I can say with absolute certainty is the garment rack by our bedroom window bloomed with the brightest pieces.