Woman- Aurora Phoenix

she wept

and the coliseum

crumbled in the wake

of her long -pent

anguish.

in her tears

she relinquished the burden

rough-hewn marble headstone

in the dammed ducts

of all the sisters,

daughters and mothers

who carried on

dutiful and diligent

when by all rights

bequeathed by Minerva

hard fought battle earned

they yearned to carry on

keening and lamenting

in disharmonious distress.

she raged

and Pompeii, lost

no longer, rises

from Vesuvian ashes

in riotous inferno

fueled of righteous

fury.

in her uproar

she releases the ghosts

literary, literal and liturgical

who, catlike, stole

tongue and very breath

of women on whose backs

on their backs

stripped and striped

cornerstones were planted

when by virtue

of their labors

they should be upright

ranting and raving

from birth to birthing

unleashed in the tempest

Eden’s serpent

for whose perfidy

she took the fall

oh! how far she fell

rises

and…