She was a genuinely sweet woman,
kind, warm, friendly to all.

She had a heart of hearts,
caring for all.

On a dreadful summer night
she got drunk with two disreputable men,
supposed to be her friends.

They took advantage of her in the
back seat of a car when she was barely
conscience, too drunk to resist.

Like unfeeling, heartless monsters,
they boasted of their rape conquest
to others in the city where I lived.

She never told the police, perhaps she
didn’t want to endure what was shameful to her.

Her reputation sullied, many were told.

I didn’t want to hear about it, her being
taken advantage of like that, her being drunk.

But unlike others, her reputation wasn’t sullied
with me.

She was still a genuinely sweet woman
and always will be in my mind and in my heart.

Bob Boyd