This poem is based on a true story. I get wine-drunk sometimes with my sisters and they laugh at me when I go on tangents about time travel, the multiverse and math.

As for that other thing? That unsafe man? Yes. That’s true too.

Speculative poetry though, lets you mix true and untrue. It lets you ask, “what if, what if, what if…” It lets the story become less about him. It makes it hers instead. And since the story is hers, since it’s true and untrue, she gets to have ownership of it. I asked my sister if I could write about what happened to her. I asked her if I could submit it for publication. I asked, when it was accepted, if she was okay with it being published. I asked that she read it and quit saying that she “trusted me” because I needed her to say yes with every bit of her. I even asked if it was okay to share it on social media where our friends and family overlap and people might question her or doubt her veracity or memory.

I got a yes, emphatically, every single time.

My sister thinks I’m very sweet, if a little silly to keep asking. But that’s the point – This is her story, all of it, even the parts that are my love and my fury, because they don’t exist without her. She gets to choose if and how I tell it. There are days I want to be an avenging harpy…but I have to remember, I need a yes first. It’s not mine to destroy.

And if this is your story too, you get to choose how and when and if you tell it. And if you want, if you choose, you can just hold the poem tight to your own heart. Your sisters love you and we believe you.