FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE/ WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF

This is an excerpt from Ntozake Shange's choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf.
Each line break signifies a different lady speaking, all of whom are denoted in the script only by the color of their clothing.

a friend is hard to press charges against

if you know him
you must have wanted it

a misunderstanding

you know
these things happen

are you sure
you didnt suggest

had you been drinkin

a rapist is always to be a stranger
to be legitimate
someone you never saw
a man wit obvious problems

pin-ups attatched to the insides of his lapels

ticket stubs from porno flicks in his pocket

a lil dick

or a strong mother

or just a brutal virgin

but if you've been seen in public wit him
danced one dance
kissed him good-bye lightly

wit closed mouth

pressin charges will be as hard
as keepin yr legs closed
while five fools try to run a train on you

these men friends of ours
who smile nice
stay employed
and take us out to dinner

lock the door behind you

wit fist in face
to fuck

who make elaborate mediterranean dinners
& let the art ensemble carry all ethical burdans
while they invite a coupla friends over to have you
are suffering from latent racist bravado
& we are left wit the scars

bein betrayed by men who knew us

& expect
like the stranger
we always thot waz comin

that we will submit

we must have known

women relinquish all personal rights
in the presence of a man
who apparently cd be considered a rapist

especially if he has been considered a friend

& is no less worthy of being beat witin an inch of his life
bein publicly ridiculed
havin two fists shoved up his ass

than the stranger we always thot it wd be

who never showed up

cuz it turns out the nature of rape has changed

we can now meet them in circles we frequent for companionship

we see them at the coffee house

wit someone else we know

we cd even have em over for dinner
& get raped in our own houses
by invitation
a friend

The lights change, and the ladies are all hit by an imaginary slap.