Unbound

Written by María Juliana Ramírez Cabal

In the quiet dawn, she’ll labour alone,
A myriad of dreams where rivers once flowed.
Soft-calloused skin, now cracking, 
The reassurance of love, collapsing. 

“You do not do, you do not do”
Nurse, Muse, Servant,  yet nobody knew.

But I am here to elucidate, 
To those who are yet to understand 
That Medusa was no monster 
But they turned her into one. 

Girls, I rather be dead, done, deceased, 
For I am not the first or last to stand here and plea,
To be heard not under a pseudonym;
But as myself, through my own lips.

But much to my dismay, 
The Gods become the source of my disgrace. 
Because as Eurydice once said ,
They act as publishers, usually male. 

In the mirror’s reflection, I see women bound by time
Years in the shadows, stuck to the night. 
So carve my name where theirs once were,
On the pages and temples the world made decay.
I’ll raise my voice for those denied fight,
For Medusa, Eurydice, and every muted light.