God’s Gift: Thalia

“… even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” – Richard Mourdock

I can see him in her smile and laughter.
Against her honeyed skin, her hair enclosed
around her fragile throat – a vise to fracture

bones, re-animated by my grey matter.
With widened eyes and pulsing veins exposed,
I can see him in her smile and laughter.

The carousel lights the night with tractor
yellows and cornflower blues. Imposed
around my fragile throat, a vise to fracture

my wrists were hands that bound me, after
I begged him, “don’t.” My legs and skirt transposed.
I can see him in her smile and laughter.

I wish the stalks had burned with him, grafter
of me and Thalia. Thoughts undisclosed:
around her fragile throat: a vise to fracture…

above her head: a barrier of water.
Although I’ll always try and stay composed,
I can see him in her smile and laughter:
around my delicate throat: a vise to fracture.

***

Candice Horde is a recent Magna Cum Laude graduate of Texas Tech with a dual degree in English: Creative Writing and Technical Communication and Rhetoric with a minor in Chemistry. She currently writes as an entertainment journalist for Entity magazine and a TV critic for Tell-Tale TV.

Read And Then There Was Man and Woman, also by Candice Horde

Try this