Female, Feral & Ferocious
for Epstein victims & everyone else
Raise your girls to be feral
Raise them to growl or be fierce
Instead of heels buy them track suits
Instead of catwalks, teach them to run
Instead of trick baits advertising “models” or how to become “stars” Tell her to watch out for people teaching “massage.”
Tell her beware of parties where the guests are all men.
Or “babysitter” gigs with no kids.
If she must “contestant” let her win “Ass-kickin queen”
If she must “runway” crown her
“Miss Neck on a Swivel.” Or Miss Universe of “You Didn’t Get Me!”
Make her aware of where predators thrive
her school or the mall, at her job or her church
or her bedroom if someone drags home a fiend.
Instead of runway turns
Teach her to trust her own instincts
Instead of auditions, teach her to be rowdy or round-house kick
Teach her jiu-jitsu, karate or Taekwondo. Let her earn a
black belt in cussing folks out.
Tell her to check escape routes
Or the etiquette of elbow thrusts
Or to spit if someone gets close.
Tell her that girls can be hard
They can be bottle-wielding mean
breaking glass just to prove they mean business
Tell her that “interviews” don’t include touching
Tell her that preachers don’t need to “see” her sin
Tell her an eye exam doesn’t require getting undressed.
Tell her that “NO means NO! NO means NO!” Over and over.
Teach her to yell “STOP IT!”
Or rudely get up and go.
Teach her to tuck & roll when jumping from cars. Or to kick
taillights if trapped in the trunk.
Teach her to be alert, that human traffickers* are near and that it’s ok to go loco, to act bat-shit crazy, to do anything she must to survive
Teach her to be feral. Teach her to be ferocious or foul
Tell her to flash claws, go for the jugular, scream bloody murder
Or hone a “Don’t fuck with me” glare.
Tell her to never get in a stranger’s car, that being nice is so overrated
Tell her homelessness, poverty or isolation make for targets.
Tell her every smile ain’t good
& easy money’s often greasy
And that nothing in life’s ever free.
Tell her if she ever gets tangled or caught to fight like hell
Tell her scratch tooth & nail
Tell her to growl & flash her claws
Teach her that boxcutters, rocks and hairpins are friends
Teach her to be cunning, teach her to plot her escape or to plant fake kisses and then gnaw
Tell her to locate exits and bolt.
Teach her to be female, ferocious or foul. Bottom line:
Tell her it’s her life or his and to do anything she can to survive
Maybe he’ll think twice
Maybe you’ll keep another one off the island
Maybe you’ll keep the Epsteins at bay, one last time.
Maybe you might save her life.
*Human trafficking generates $150 billion annually and is the second largest criminal enterprise in the world with 25 million trafficked each year. 1 in 4 victims are aged under 18 and most traffickers are known to their victims. The top country trafficking victims is the United States.
LA native, Pam Ward recently released her poetry anthology, “BETWEEN GOOD MEN & NO MAN AT ALL,” World Stage Press, 2023. She’s the author of two novels, “WANT SOME GET SOME,” and “BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW,” Kensington. A UCLA graduate, California Arts Council Fellow, Pushcart Poetry Nominee and founding member of the Leimert Park Book Fair, Pam published in numerous publications, including Voices of Leimert Park, Renaissance Noir and the LA Times and was honored by the LA Department of Cultural Affairs as a 2025 Trailblazer writer. In 2024, Pam participated in the first Poetry Olympics in Paris. She’s been writer in residence and a board member of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation and The World Stage and has conducted workshops for Black Women for Wellness, Art Center College of Design, CAAM and runs a design business and community press, Short Dress Press and program directs the feminist political poetry troupe, THE OVARY OFFICE which showcased at the LA Festival of books. She recently completed a YA novel, STOVES DON’T CRY and the historical novel, “I’ll Get You My Pretty,” based on her role in the Black Dahlia Murder. www.pamwardwriter.com
