Woman, slip from your chains and
sharpen your teeth
on the dry creaking bones of the ships
that never carried you to shore.
Run naked, run wild, run free.
Run beautiful with
heart pulsing red
vulnerable because it is not wrong
to be soft.
When men command you
to shut up, slow down, be quiet
to put your head down, girl
laugh, because
it was a woman
who conquered the strongest man.
Lillie Busch lives in a small Southern household where she writes and draws. She won Honorable Mention for a short story in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Persephone’s Daughters is her first publication.