Wild Women

pokeasleepingsmaug:

@ceridwenofwales and all her Greek myth female empowerment posts this morning have been super inspiring for me! Thanks for posting them, girl. I started this poem a while ago and this was just the kick I needed to finish it. It’s got nothing to do with anything I usually post, but I’m going to post it anyway 🙂

We come from a long line of wild women,
sooner shoot daggers with our eyes than look at you,

Back from the Amazons who cut off a
breast to fire bows better than a man can,

All the way up to me laying in mud with
my cheekbone pillowed on an M4.

We are the pride of Penthesilea, rather
have Achilles kill her than love her, as he thinks that in that final
moment before death she’ll surrender

But she knows she’ll just laugh
because she comes from a long line of wild women;

Free as a woodland sprite, rip you
apart like Artemis did if you dare dishonor her, if you try to comb
the flowers from her hair and scrub the starlight from her skin.

You can attempt to tame her but you
can’t conquer a girl with a spirit more monumental than mountains

Because we come from a long line of
wild women, swifter than Atalanta, queen of catch-me-if-you-can,

And you can’t catch a woman who runs
with the wind ever at her back chasing sunlight on ocean waves
because the sea is in her veins;

Morgan le Fey beating her brother at
his own game because nothing is quite so clever as the way a woman
with the night sky in her eyes distills moonbeams into magic,

And we come from a long line of wild
women, back from Boudicca sending Romans running to their own shores

To her descendent watching hellfires
rain from attack helicopters zooming higher than the ravens of the
Morrigan,

The queen of carnage dancing to the
clangor of spears on shields because sometimes chaos is beautiful if
you take the time to understand it,

Like Helen of Troy and the destruction
she caused, a pretty face and sleek hair laying waste to an entire
city with a single smoldering glance

Because she came from a long line of
wild women, would rather start wars than relinquish freedoms;

A follower of Circe, turning men into
pigs so they’ll leave her the hell alone,

Joan of Arc swearing herself to God and
leading his armies, and just you try to force yourself on a woman
with a weapon

Because let me tell you something about
women—when we go to the bathroom in groups it’s for your own
safety.

Since we come from a long line of wild
women, Sergeant Milunka Savich came back from a piss break with 23
captured enemies

And now her descendants carry ka-bars
and rifles in deserts, combing sand from hair but never scrubbing
starlight from skin;

Cleopatra tempting all just to lead
them to an early demise because how dare you try to conquer her

When you knew all
along she comes from a long line of wild women, Valkyries laughing as
they select their next eager victims,

And Eve offering Adam an apple she knew
he couldn’t have all because he demanded she be created and he
expected her to be subservient

But she was the first in a long line of
wild women, sooner shoot you with her eyes than look at you.