Dear Consequences,

I will live with the consequences of how I choose to use my protected free speech. I will live with the consequences of how I choose to live my life as a woman, a survivor, and a human being.

My words will not become lost in the unwritten.

I will not be silent, nor hate myself by cutting my own tongue off.

My truth will not be taken by oppression or by the oppressors.

I cannot lay down with lies from those who are owned by shame and secrets.

I will not sacrifice my voice.

Shackle me to the Scarlet H.

I can pin it to my chest.

But I will wear it with pride.

Give me the Consequences of binding me to this harassment order for my foreseeable future.

Given this Consequence, my name is now attached to theirs, and to this trauma of what has been done as it follows me with every Google search, I will be the proof of their acts of abuse. And what's been ruled against me will be an example of how the system has been complicit in abuse.

Label me defiant, and use my beautiful empowered healing words against me.

But my words will be written.

I will love myself for the way my tongue speaks and how my speech fills the room with healing.

My truth will exist and live on.

I will stand in my survival. The shame and secrets of those who I have had to survive will be spoken...

With my voice, my voice is mine.

Respectfully,

Wisa Wahosi Trudell