Femininity
And maybe the story of Medusa was one of mercy;
maybe Poseidon was possessed by her beauty and wronged her
shamelessly;
maybe Athena took one look at her tear-stained cheeks and
granted her a gift:
nobody could ever harm her again,
and she could feel protected in her own strength
instead of subject to rough, grabbing hands
and slimy, cutting jeers;
for how could Athena’s wisdom find fault in the innocent,
in her most dedicated votress who
trembled prettily, violently, if anyone got too close?
how could this freshly re-instilled
security,
confidence,
power
ever be seen as anything but an act of kindness
from a goddess to her sister?
Nature Herself
Fate is dead and the world is burning.
It seems people like the illusion of choice, but not really choosing
because choices have consequences, don’t they?
and isn’t life easier leaving things up to Fate, and
blaming her for things that go wrong?
It seems people like to feel protected, like
God or some god has everything pre-packaged and pre-planned,
because that way they know everything will work out in the end
and nothing they do can change or ruin that.
Well now the Fate they called god is dead—
murdered maybe—
and the world is self-destroying
and the people are destroying each other.
Maybe Fate was never real
and she was instead confused for her sister Hope.
But now Hope is dying too—
poisoned maybe—
and who can say who our skillful assassin is
in a world of beings now moving of their complete own volition?
And what now? Who is there to replace Hope?
What is there to anticipate, besides a return to turbulent nature
Herself?
About the author: I’m sixteen, and I live in California. In my writings I like to take traditional planes of thought—in this case, the existence of fate and religion and the story of Medusa, respectively—and explore what it means to me to twist the norm. My artwork is part of an investigation of how memory can be fallible and how as we get older there comes a fear of forgetting. I wanted to portray that concept in art, as well as some themes that relate to memory, such as music and how it can stimulate the brain and help you remember. *See Chloe's visual art in this issue of Girls Right the World!
