IN THE GREENEST DARKNESS, I HEAR WHISPERED BY ALEXA WILLIAMS - POEM

We are many and we are one We live beneath the earth till it comes undone

The dead among us you feast upon But wait little one, your time will come when you are beneath us we shall rise

In your flesh we shall creep to suck out every last drop of meat

Behind your eyes we shall flourish and take all that will nourish

Bones are our home as we bring you down so we may rise and create and breathe andWe climb, we rhyme, we take your traits as we digest

We are many and you are few, yet your hands choke our brothers and tear at our sisters

Marching feet in caterpillar train twist and shape and crunch and mash and-

We grow many and you grow few A cycle as broken as our hearts

Twist in your screws and weld your steel, But we will see this cycle through

Till it breaks as your world starts to quake When all is said and all is done

Your world will be the desolation we rebirth

Renew the cycle, renew the light, renew all of you

You will not see it and you should cry your thanks

For we have seen our fall as you never shall

We are patient and we are kind, we shall gorge and rule when you are sound asleep on the earth we have softened and tended the green beds left where we could hide them from your long sullied eyes

We will tend to the remains of you, always the servant's duty

For we will save you, take you, make you a thing of beauty

We are many and we are one Join us and let the pain be undone

Why must mine father and brother have such a tight hold on me? They insist on treating me like a child, And yet they do not know mine childhood is mostly lost

I have not had the guidance of mine mother for many years Only ever looked up to men. No woman figure to admire, And shape mine life after. Often, as I lie before I rest, I wonder how life could have been With mine mother by mine side

Would she have kept me tied down with her words? Or would she let me flourish?

Her once being a young girl, she would surely understand. Understand what it’s like to have these thorns in mine side.

So although mine brother and father

Come at me with nothing but love in their hearts, They do not know What it is like to be a young woman, Enchanted by love.

These men know not of the conflict a woman faces A girl is told to think not of men, not till marriage. A girl must stay pure to flourish And if she does it not, Then who will want her?