To the League of Extraordinary Ladies
By Sarah Gane Burton
What we need now
is a woman who can tell a good story
one of those to-be-continued tales
that stretches night after night
distracting the megalomaniac
from his modus operandi
of chaos and destruction.
Send us Shahrazad
a fabled beauty telling fables
avoiding fatality
taming madness
with imagination and poise
and a bedtime story
for an overgrown man-child.
If Shahrazad is unavailable
we will settle for any of the other
indomitable women willing to deal
with our President/Dictator/Emperor
(at their discretion, of course). We might suggest
Jael, Cleopatra, Boudica, Joan. Some wise and charming
woman who knows how to wield a tent peg.
Sarah Gane Burton is a freelance writer living in Michigan with her husband, two children, and a dog. Her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Medical Literary Messenger, Third Wednesday, Still Point Arts Quarterly, and the South Carolina Review. She enjoys botanical gardens, thrift stores, and looking at other people’s bookshelves.
Photo credit: alameen .ng via a Creative Commons license.
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