In the end, it was not an invading army from beyond the sea, nor the king’s brother’s men, that brought about the end of this unjust despotic regime. It was the servants and the slaves, the orphans and the wives, taking those hands that struck them daily and breaking them, bone by bone.
In the morning they opened the gates, walked out dazed beyond the city walls. And above them the sky turned pale with ash, a grief as bright as hope.
__________
Notes:
1. Written in August 2019
__________“If there’s doubt, say no.”
“How’s saying no going to help, mother? A big bull like that, once his head’s all addled by lust, ain’t no one’s going to stop him.”
“It’s up to him if he won’t hear you. You’ve done your part. Given him fair warning to stop.”
“And then what? Just lie back and let him have his way, safe in the knowledge that at least I protested?”
“Of course not, dearie,” the maid’s mother said. “You’ll gently put your hands around his neck, and with those lacquered nails of yours, slice those throbbing veins of his apart.”
She put down her scissors, and showed her daughter the mirror.
“That’s how I brought your father down to size.”
__________
Notes:
1. Written in February 2019
2. Upon waking from a dream.
2. Although the rest of the story faded quickly away