I know where women began
As gods,
As prey not of men
But of stars
We start at her beginning
So small, like tiny particles adrift in the cosmos
With every horror, she splits into another thousand pieces
Making her smaller in each devastation
Until her center is so tiny that she implodes
Like snowfall in a storm of creation
Giving birth to the stars
A millennia of light
Her little specks of fire trailing
Scaling the universe
Painting streaks of blood upon the moon
This is a woman
Both red and bright
Splitting all of time and space into fragments
Giving goddess, god-like,
Woman of the night.
cover art by Vera van den Berg
j. r. wallington 