Scheherazade

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.

A Note from Writers Resist
Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist on our Give a Sawbuck page.

By Phyllis Wax

The tales she told
night after night
for a thousand and one nights—
fascinating enough
to keep the king entranced
and to save herself from beheading.

But bedtime stories from today’s Persia,
women targeted like wild game—
pheasants or pigeons, squirrels, rabbits—
men taking aim
at faces, breasts, genitals
to cause maximum pain,
birdshot pellets maiming those most tender,
most sensitive spots,
the parts men seem to like best

Who is listening
to these tales?

Social issues are a major focus of Milwaukee poet Phyllis Wax, but she is also inspired by nature and human nature. She has read in coffee houses, bars, libraries and on the radio. Among the anthologies and journals in which her poetry has appeared are: Feral, The Widows’ Handbook, Writers Resist, Jerry Jazz Musician, Rise Up Review, Spillway, Peacock Journal, Surreal Poetics, Naugatuck River Review, New Verse News, Portside, Your Daily Poem. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, as well as the Best of the Net and Bettering American Poetry anthologies. Reach her at poetwax38@gmail.com.

Photo credit: “Iran Protests” by Taymaz Valley via a Creative Commons license.

A note from Writers Resist

Thank you for reading! If you appreciate creative resistance and would like to support it, you can make a small, medium or large donation to Writers Resist from our Give a Sawbuck page.