What if it’s also about desire? What if I need to order
my daughter, age five, to wear tights beneath her skirt
and it’s not just a father’s instinct? My wife seems less
concerned about her running outside naked than I do.
My wife says, “She’s only five. It’ll be alright.”
Power causes men to obsess over what women have
over them and causes them to seek out the safe houses
my wife used to work in. Those nondescript suburban
enclaves harboring victims of domestic abuse. My wife
couldn’t tell me the house address. Every once in a while,
an abuser would come knocking having figured it out.
I watch a film about the Russian incursion into Hungary
during World War II, how the Red Army committed
mass rape, pinning down young women for squadrons
at a time. Was that only about power? Stalin defended
his men, saying they’d just been through hell. My wife
teaches me how to speak to my daughter. She says,
“It’s all in the tone you use.” I soften my tone when
I want her to stop throwing food at the dinner table.
And it works, she stops. I tell her her dress is cute.
She likes the word cute. When my daughter is with me
at a gas station at night or at the local Five Guys,
I watch the men and women, and I pray with my eyes.
Alejandro Escudé’s first book of poems, My Earthbound Eye, was published in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
Photo by Larm Rmah.
