Prologue Present ‘Anger can eat you up, from deep inside you, if you are not careful.’ ‘It will consume you until there is nothing left.’ ‘It will eat you alive.’ I know. *** I have a bracelet made of salt around my right wrist. From it, a lucky charm in the shape of a dark eye hangs, light as water. […]
I don’t like sharing. Every time I do, there’s someone ready to spoil it. To eat the last slice of a cake I made that I was saving for myself, to steal the scarf I had spent the past two months carefully knitting, to twist what had happened and tell me “they didn’t mean it, it means nothing.” So I […]
“The Lady of Shalott” was written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1832. It is both based on the legend of king Arthur, and also on a short Italian prose text called ‘Donna di Scalotta ’written in the 13th century. The poem’s target audience was children, as it explores themes of childhood and adolescence, and adulthood, in particular transitioning from the […]
In the darkness, Hemera dwelt alone, It was her home, her blood, She shouldn’t have felt so lost. The shadows engulfed her, they kept her company, And yet they imprisoned her. They imprisoned her as they imprisoned her daughters. The girls of dawn and daylight. Cursed before they were born, Before she was ever born. No one knows when it […]
A curse for her, a lifeline for others. Elaine, to save you from yourself, we sentenced you to a half life. You knew, to be safe, you must never leave. Never leave your home that towered the frozen rivers that encircled your island. Never gaze too long out your only window. But Elaine, why live like this? Snow falls all […]
Persephone ran through the ravine, Hair of molten bronze trailing after her. Eyes glittering with liquid aquamarine, Crimson liquid staining her sage slipper. The winds were her sleeves, The grass her stockings, The leaves her veil. Persephone ran, A trail of violets and lilies appearing where she stepped, Sun-kissed skin, the colour of the earth Shone in the moonlight. She […]
There’s a tree that grows inside of my body. He absorbs my blood, my heart is his own. There are branches filling up my lungs; I cannot breathe. His roots are piercing my skin, My freckles are outnumbered by splinters. Pollen rains down on us like a storm of springtime snow. It poisons our waters, And now, barbed wire grows […]
Eleanor? The wind whispers, No one else knows your name. You walk again, A stranger’s voice echoes on Eleanor? Glass shatters on marble tiles, You see a silhouette from the corner of your eye. There’s no one here. Eleanor? Your eyes stare back at you, They’re a different shade of blue than what you remember. Eleanor, is it you? Truth […]
I have leaves for memories. They fall from my heart and I keep them between book pages, An album of moments that I wish to forget, But cannot bear to. My heartstrings are the roots of my childhood. They made me who I am, But they are so hidden, so deeply buried within me, That reliving them feels like watching […]
I have a bed made from thornes of roses. I welcome the pain as I lay on it at night. Petals brush against my skin, thorns dig into my flesh. They lay into their dents, they’re at home in artificial dimples. My body has altered itself to accommodate them. They are part of me. The pain is everlasting, I rejoice […]