“Help me, help me! He raped me!”
A crowd gathered quickly,
but no one moved to interfere.
The incident took place in broad daylight;
on one of the busiest streets in the Bronx.
The girl was naked,
with livid bruises on her neck.
Eyes were blackened,
her mouth was bleeding.
Only the chance arrival,
two patrolmen
pushing through the crowd.
A block and a half away to their posts
when they heard the screams.
No one could be found
who had seen the attack,
or had heard the young woman’s screams.
“Forty people could have helped that girl, but none of those jerks helped her”