“On February 8, 2009, at 12:30am, Chris Brown

beat Rihanna’s face into a landscape of craters

and bruises. This is the architecture of violence.

Later, Chris Brown described their relationship

as being similar to Romeo and Juliet’s.

In 2013, David O. Russell groped

his niece’s breasts and claimed

she had flirted with him first.

In 1965, Sean Connery told Playboy

there was nothing wrong with beating a woman.

That “bloody-minded,” “hysterical,” “bitch”

women should be hit, should be slapped.

In 2014, Julia Sonenshein wrote an article

titled “10 Violent Men Who Are Always Forgiven

Because Everyone Loves Their Art.”

They say it’s a myth that mother rabbits

abandon their young in their nests

after their young have been handled

by humans. That the scent of humans

will drive the mother away.

They say it’s a myth.

And that the young, no matter how battered

or bruised, will still be accepted

by their caregivers.

But in the human world, the rules change.

After the rape, most of my rapist’s friends

abandoned me. One claimed I only wanted

to profit off my art.

No one considered that blood

does not make good paint.

That trauma is an electric chair

that singes anyone it can reach.

It wasn’t my art, remember?

It was his.

And he was always forgiven

because they loved his art.”