shotgun opera / lock & load

                                       an army can win a battle,                                          a king can win a war,                                 but watch the queen seize the stars.

if only the clock were to speak—

In the modern world, the goddesses don’t wait for men to fight their battles. They take weapons and find battles. Artemis has her hood up and goes hunting after dark. The city’s just another forest in need of a mistress to tip the scale between prey and predator and everyone always said her mouth looked better when it was painted blood red. There’s too many tears in the streets. Aphrodite thinks it shouldn’t matter. That everyone should love who they want how they want, but it should all start with giving love to yourself. A couple of counseling degrees later and she’s started a movement. She’s glad they’re understanding the strength found in the heart. Everyone is always at war, and Athena nurtures warriors. Ones that fight with their minds and ones who fight with their fists. Hera started a website and it nearly crashed in the first hour. There’s no room for weakness. Everyone is learning to be Queens. Then there is one final lesson, the softness amongst the rough. They gather before her throne, and Persephone whispers softly into their ears that it’s ok to love fiercely and leave things behind. Hackles are still hackles no matter how pretty they are. Take your freedom and hope it makes the world burn.

there is a reason why the QUEEN is the strongest piece on the chessboard 

She keeps a knife close to her heart, ready to strike before anyone else does.

You are more than a girl. You are a force of nature. You are a storm, you are chaos and you are an ocean, and the people who mistreat you should be very afraid of what can happen when all three live in the body of one person.

One. You see her for the first time and she’ll walk right past you like you are a crack in the wall and she is a skyscraper with her head so high in the air and when you can’t sleep you’ll think about the way her eyes strayed into yours for a moment too long before breaking away and disappearing into the crowd of people. Two. She’ll look both ways before telling you she loves you under her breath and when she hugs you her eyes scan the empty room as if the walls had eyes and ears and mouths that could give you away. Three. When she’s curled up on your lap shaking with mismatched breaths you’ll wonder how someone who looked like she carried mountains on her shoulders could crumble so easily in your arms like the tornado in her mind finally hit her and knocked her off her feet. Four. In half-light she’ll run her fingers over your arms like she is reading words carved into your skin, binding them together into the perfect metaphor and you’ll hear it playback in your head at 4am when your head runs wild with thoughts of her. Five. You’ll find a safe haven on rooftops and abandoned rooms where she’ll set fire to your insides with hushed breaths between kisses planted perfectly on your lips and make you wonder how dangerous it is to play with wild flames while your body is made of paper. Six. You’ll stare God right in the eye and tell him that if loving her was a sin then you want no place in heaven with him because the way her lips fit perfectly on your neck is a type of paradise you’ll never forget.

I. Don’t let the thought of ‘some other universe’ keep you awake until two fifty-three in the morning. In some other universe you’re asleep. II. Everyone leaves. Let them. The important ones come back. III. You’re not a ghost, you can’t haunt those who forget you. Stop trying. IV. Don’t count your breaths as you cross the street. Don’t count hers at all. Grab her hand and watch for cars instead. V. Every moment passes into another until it doesn’t. Everything ends and it’s okay.

                      For the girls with blood dripping from their noses ; from their mouths