MEDEA
You came to Colchis.
I pulled loose acanthus branches.
Though thorns cut my hands,
I wound them ‘round columns for you.
I honored your victory with laurel wreaths.
I wound them in your dark gloss’d curls.
I slept to murmured words of love,
My face buried in your bronzed throat.
I burned for you.
I did all to help you.
I gave you unguents and herbs.
Hecate laughed at my blind adulation.
They say: The gods laugh when they answer your prayers.
I killed my brother for you.
I cut him in a thousand pieces.
They never found them all to bury.
You left me for Glauce, princess.
Her wedding gifts: a gold coronet and dress of crimson cloth.
I worked hatred into the weft and poison into the weave.
I, whom you called barbarian,
I sent her our sons, bearing these gifts of my love for you.
She burned for you, her soft flesh melting like wax.
Now the wedding dress is her shroud.
I wander the ruin’d garden.
This twilight is never-ending.
The vines pull my dress and hair.
I walk up the crumbling steps.
My skirts weigh me down.
The children pull at them.
I keep looking, looking for you.
I raise my right hand to the gods.
I implore for vengeance.
They turn their faces away.
I hear Hecate laughing.
Leaves redden in the dying light.
My hands are too empty.
I killed our sons for you.
I wound my hand in their dark gloss’d curls.
I bared their bronzed throats, so like their father’s.
I cut them in a thousand pieces.
I scattered them to the sea.
I still hear their voices, feel their breath.
It pulls at me like a thousand vines, binding me to twilight.
300 ineligible words
Thor on a bloody motorbike woman …. that is brilliant! Darkfaery Queen indeed. You are wonderful.
Definitely dark…as black as night with crimson blood dripping from those vines…gorgeous words Anna.
Sigh, the queen has spoken and enthralled all her subjects. Bravo!!!
Wonderful! Powerful and poignant. Euripides would be chuffed to bits 🙂
I just love reading your stories. They enrapture me 🙂
Another dark and morbid fairytale (as traditional fairytales are). You have written this beautifully!