Maenads

They tear like furies
through our woods,
rare and dangerous
beasts, flesh eating,
wine-frenzied
mad-driven and devouring.
They eat through
the tenuous threads between us,
plundering your affections
like flesh,
shedding earrings, hair strands
the odd undergarment.
I'm beginning to take
things myself.
a tea cup,
a bottle of wine.
I've begun at last
to feel entitled,
starved and naked,
lurking in the dark.

Kristy Bowen's work has appeared most recently in Moon Journal, Poetry Midwest, and Prairie Poetry. Her work is forthcoming in Mentress Moon, Half Drunk Muse, and Eclectica. After studying English and Theatre Arts at Rockford College, where she won the College Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets, she received an M.A. in English Literature from DePaul University in 1999. Her latest project is launching the on-line literary zine Wicked Alice. She also serves as contributing editor for "20th Century Women Authors" at Suite101.com. She currently lives in Chicago.

Personal Website

Wicked Alice

Email: Kristy Bowen

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