The False Accusation (Nov 28 Prompt: Workplace Adversity Poem)

A year and a day
after I received my
Certificate of Excellence
(signed by the College Chancellor)
I was hauled before
the Vice Presidents of
Human Resources and
Administration and Finance
and was threatened
with termination
because a
female co-worker made
the false accusation
that I raped her,
when all I’d done
was have consensual sex
with her
and then have the temerity
not to beg her
to leave her husband
for me.

Obviously, a lover spurned,
classic and predictable,
but when the person making
the false accusation
possessed a vagina,
she was believed
without a critical thought
(ironic for a college,
I know).

I looked at
Walt and Jim
and said
“Both of you
have female assistants.
Don’t you see
how easily
the false accusation
can bite you too?”
They wouldn’t
look me in the eye.

I had to bring in
notes she’d sent
from the college
email server,
which used her own words
to contradict and discredit
her story,
and then
the false accusation
of rape
magically went away.

Moral:
While honesty
is usually the best policy,
in personnel matters
with Human Resources,
email evidence
sometimes trumps
the false accusation.

[#novpad]