VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - 
VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - 
Latest Issue

Anomaly 2022  •  19 October 2022  •  Creative Writing

No More Blackouts!

By Pragya Paneru
Content Warning: Sexual assault, violence
 No More Blackouts!

You said, that filthy touch of your predator 

made you blackout for a while.

I could relate to you.

I had believed, 

being a fighter, you would act differently.

I had assumed,

being a woman warrior, you would battle him fiercely.

I never knew predators’ approaches had similar impacts on victims

You reminded me of my own paralysed position

I was once in your shoes

I thought my predator snatched away my purity

With his unwanted touch and forced intimacies. 

For a while, I became vapour

Only after, I regained my consciousness

I realised I was right there, 

unadulterated and unshaken,

Like a flame.

My purity was spotless.


At that moment, I understood

For generations, we were taught wrongly

that we lose our value when penetrated.

We lose our dignity when our body is violated

But, now I know

I am the value, not my body nor my affluence

For the first time,

I felt unburdened from my body. 

The same day, 

I owned my body.


That is when I declared that predators have no right to glare without my consent

Even if I wear invisible tattoos of suppression and oppression

I chose to disown them

And decide not to be a statue when attacked.

Then only I felt my claws and mighty limbs along with my curves

And a voice that could tremble the world

Like Kali, I felt, I could perform an annihilation dance

to make their lives seem merely a chance.


Now, when those predators mock

I snarl at them and make them choke.

When violated, 

I gnaw them like my prey

and slay them like I say.

Beware, no more intimidation!

No more botheration!

VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - 
VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - VERTIGO - 

© 2024 UTS Vertigo. Built by bigfish.tv