go to hell — Summary

sarahAngry

and so i just laid there, as still as i could be. i froze as you touched every inch of my body. you thought i was asleep. i was so young. i had so much to live for. i've gone everyday thinking about what you did and how i could've stopped it. i'm still trying to convince myself that it wasn't my fault. why would you do this to me? i hope you burn in hell.

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Sarah's poem is a first-person account of being sexually abused, and of living with the aftermath. The speaker remembers lying perfectly still while someone touched her, hoping to be left alone. Her freezing was not consent, and the poem makes clear it was a reaction to fear, since the abuser believed she was asleep. The short, flat sentences ("i was so young") sound like someone stating facts she can barely hold.

The feelings shift as it goes on. Early lines carry helplessness and shock, then grief for the future she felt was threatened ("i had so much to live for"). Next comes guilt: she replays the night every day, wondering how she could have stopped it, and admits she is still trying to convince herself it wasn't her fault. That honesty is the most painful part. The closing lines turn outward, first with a question, "why would you do this to me?", and then with raw anger. The mood is bleak and intimate, but the title, "go to hell," shows her finally placing blame where it belongs.

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