Many months
alone

with her own

Venom

in a Sarpedon cave
made to nestle her

Beauty gone;
Head - 
a writhing tangle of
Vicious Serpents;
cursed;
unrecognisable 

Did she retreat because Shame

became

her only bedfellow?

Perhaps ‘twas more a respite
to protect
the unsuspect
ing
from her projections

lest they be turned to stone

so easily does Shame become Blame

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I am the Destructive Force

the eruption that leaves you lost 

for words

I am the bursting forth

of the trauma you buried decades ago

that brings you to your knees

I am the seemingly endless pain

that makes you wish for death

that you may never again fear it

I am Maleficent on steroids

your worst fears realised

I am the knocking down, brutally, 

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They tell me there are things that I can’t speak

that I must keep and keep and keep 

that there are things that happen in dark places, in the in-between spaces with people who are faceless

And that I can’t speak

They tell me that i have no voice no choice no right to write

They tell me that I will not be believed and that I am not

will not

can not

be beloved

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Expansion

And in the end it is as simple and as complicated as an out breath

all that weighed her down and kept her small clears like mist as her head rises, antlers held aloft, crowning glory, and her wings unfold gracefully, easily as she stands, she stands, she stands and speaks 

And it never before was the right time

Would you ask a prisoner of war why he didn’t just leav...

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I will make of this place

my grave

belly pressed against my mother 

Earth

salt tears feeding the sand

sound of waves crashing

purple pink pig face flowers

dancing gently on the dunes

slowly climbing over the body

sun beats down

dissolving it to grains of sand

blown by the wind

to the waves

and away

at last 

Away

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Solace 

I do not share

your unacknowledged luxury

to do as You please and when

I am a mother

I Am

A

Mother

You are

the bearer,

the holder or with-holder,

of knowledge and technique

But I am

the bearer of children

the holder of the dying

I Am A Mother

And that You 

do not see

Me

Is your loss

it is yours

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Blood and Bone

We are walking on the soil 

from black bones now

And swimming in rivers that ran red

with black blood.

Yes, "We."

And We

need to

Be  

brave now 

we need to be

pushing our roots down deep

now

we need to be

looking down deep now

looking deep down

'Cause we need to be brave now

we need to be

Can't afford to deny now

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When we meet

               time slides

       from now

                              to then

to when  in some past life maybe

we were lovers?

                          friends?

                                        brothers?

And now 

               and now, exquisite vision

so fragile I fear to crush it with over-thinking

As I feel your fingertips 

          ...

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Seamstress

Don't try to understand

just listen

These words are

stitches

sewing me here 

more closely

than I can sometimes bear

mending the tears 

drying the tears

in circle stitching 

our scattered shattered

torn

ripped

broken pieces together 

I have agency 

without urgency

Choose to open

in my own 

time

I am both 

...

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Death poem

Two days prior to expectation

I bleed into the earth

Red stain

deaths the bitterness

of being beaten;

the protection of 'them' from 'him'

(whatever and whoever that means);

the desperate 

grabbing?

grappling?

for the thread

I fear lost

that binds me 

to this body

this earth.

Just write instead 

just write

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Do not mistake silence or stillness

for acquiescence

You see the shell of the egg

waiting to hatch

Trust me

This is not submission

Not all protests are noisy affairs

and there's no shame in

protecting yourself

​​​Trust me

Do not presume I'm no threat

There is power in being

Underestimated

Trust me

When language does not fit

When tradition is a disconnec...

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Well practised
I am
at being bleached clean
Mostly it is better
not to be seen
Clever they are
programmed from two
Being special, my dear,
means that they will want you
And hide as you might
and hide as you try
it is their greatest pleasure
to push til you cry
The stronger you get
the further they go
They laugh even harder
when you say no
And so I am practised
at being bleached c...

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And the flames they are licking at the corners of my fear
And my mind it is saying it's too hot to stay here
And my heart is crying tears that dry before they fall
But my gut says 
Stand here in the fire
Stand tall

And let it burn let it burn
Let it all fall away
All the silence and the hatred and the putrid decay

There's a wolf and he's baring his teeth in the flames
Waiting for the...

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