It started with an accusation from a
white male coworker about me and work place sex.
Air was suddenly sucked out the room.

Helpless I reached out to a black male coworker
asking him to not leave me alone with him.
Instead he piled on accusations of a video.
He laughed and said the infamous title
from the movie, “She’s gotta to have it!”
Betrayed my cheeks felt red hot.

I retreated into my protective shell.
Apparently believing the rumors
the black man decided to shoot his shot.
Invited me for drinks in my neighborhood.
Recoiled when I invited my husband to join.

Many years later I figured out the culprit.
My current boss who was once a security guard
use to stand outside my office door under a camera
harassing me after midnight in a desolate area.
Alone and afraid, I had to lock my door and turn out the lights.

More years later the same boss during covid
stole my missed meals and breaks money payments.
Me unknowingly, that this was a prosecutorable crime 
I reported it to his boss and the money was repaid.

He began to mess with my schedule.
This time I knew this was retaliation.
I reported it and his boss denied it.
I asked for it to be taken higher.
Nothing changed and no one got back to me.

Recently after he wrote me up
for a minor mistake,
I asked the Vice President
if the retaliation was reported.
He denied it had been.

Today I got enough courage to ask
the retired employee
about the suppossed tape.
He denied saying or knowing anything.
I could tell he was lying!

He asked if I wrote any of this down
with dates and times.
I told him no.

He told me to watch out for cameras
if I was doing anything recordable.
He was trying to be funny.

It wasn’t and this is for him.
It’s not a joke!
I told him I was poet.
This is how I write things down.

An entire department of men
harassed me for years
because security saw me on camera 
coming out an empty office with friends.
They renamed the office the love shack
when it became a computer maintenance office
where my now boss was temporarily located
when he was a maintenance technician.
It took me years to put this together.

The people who were supposed
to keep me safe were instead
surveilling me for who was
coming and going in my office
and now my original harasser
who is now my boss is continuing
to harass me with my schedule.
This is corporate America.

My words protect me from others.
My words are my shields and weapons.
My poetry saves others from me.
I am a Poet and you cannot destroy me.
I will have the last word.