❝We do our best, we Queens, we mothers, mothers of Queens. We wade through blood for our sleeping girls. We have daggers for eyes. Behind our lullabies, the hooves of terrible horses thunder and drum.❞
--Carol Ann Duffy, Queen Herod
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❝Listen. I do not think you understand me here.❞
In which the women from times past rise up to speak from gilded tongues and tattered throats, to tell you the truth that no man dared to tell you—for they are not men.
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❝You are dealing with the divine.❞
MEN ARE TERRIBLE THINGS. They write their histories and only theirs, without remembering the bone of their bone and the flesh of their flesh.
Their mothers.
Their wives.
Their women.
Their life.
So, now, after all has been said and done and those men are dead and buried, let me tell you two things.
One, men lie from both corners of their mouths. Two, they lie to get something that they want. To pick ripe fruit when it is ready for them, but not ready for us.
Our fruit has ripened, now, and so it is ready at last.
We wait, and we wait, and we wait, and we are rewarded by a chance to tell our stories again.
A chance to speak from tongues that have been bloodied because we have been eating ourselves into ourselves until nothing of us remained.
Listen, you who have opened us up to the world, hear, you who have given us tongue and teeth, and understand.
Understand that everything fades, including a woman.
But a woman can save the world.
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An anthology of love, lust, loss, and war caused by the hollow in a woman's chest
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this project is a favorite of mine—before i wrote stories, i wrote poetry, my window into the world.
recently, as i faced a bout of writer's block that eventually brought the revised, second draft of The Talisman (now posted as Wrath in the Ashes), i returned to my roots.
this anthology—born of the absolute longing to write about women that have been buried by history—was started on my Tumblr, @the-ichor-of-ruination, and received quite a lot of attention. for now, poems will be posted there as they are written; after that, they will be uploaded here to Wattpad for the rest of you to enjoy.
"salt and fire" is written in chronological order, starting from the women of the Tanakh/Mikra, or Old Testament, and going onward from there into the New Testament. each poem will be written in lowercase, as well as containing hints in the title about the woman/women discussed in them. at the end, the last line will give the subject away—the faceclaim will be included at the beginning of the poem to help you visualize the appearance of each woman.
do not let these poems fool you, however.
sugar and salt are the same color.
fire is seductive, but it burns.
beware the man you think you know.
beware the story you think has been told.
beware the one you think is dead and gone forever.
what is dead may never die.
always stay ruinated, darlings,
--ella <3
Signature by @ontheupsidedown
IMPORTANT
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(also, i know i've said this many, many times, but it would mean the world to me if you would refrain from swearing or using the Lord's name in vain. i'm a Christian, and as such i feel responsible for my comments section on all my books. IF you have sworn on my books before and didn't know that's forgiven. but please try not to in the future, or i'm afraid i will have to flag your comment for personal reasons.)
P.S
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(don't steal my stuff.)
©2019 by E.S Johnson
Cover by myself
1st draft
Start date: 6/30/19
End date: TBA
(--dedication: for those who
are not
fettered
by the whims
of man and beast
alike.)