Letter

At last my tongue unfurls its vindications. I’m not a silent object of love—a rouged letter in the ruckles of your bed.  You try and squeeze me into your glass slippers, but I’m soaring towards the ceiling, crystal shards studding my collarbone. When I write, it’s a poem about women and freedom; a familiar letter to Veronica Franco. Together, our words overwrite the roar of accusations and the lapping silence of inequality.

 

 

Cassandra Atherton is a widely anthologised prose poet and scholar of prose poetry. Her most recent book of prose poetry is Leftovers (LBM, 2020), she co-authored Prose Poetry: An Introduction (Princeton UP, 2020) and co-edited the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (Melbourne UP, 2020). For more information:cassandra-atherton.com and: deakin.edu.au