HERESIES

CLARICE

Born into a time
of chaos
famine
and war

Clarice

grandfather murdered

mother raped

father exiled

left penniless
on the other side
of the world

Clarice

the Jesuit priest asked:

do you renounce
the glamour of evil

and refuse to be mastered
by sin,

Clarice?

you're a caster of spells

a nervous ghost
haunting us all

literature
witchcraft
mythology

a subject
of speculation

Clarice

shifts shape

glamour
and sorcery

the legendary

the beautiful

Clarice

witch
wife
mother

Clarice

conjuring hidden forces
on the beaches
of Guanabara

you're something other
than you seem

Clarice

here's to the silent
and silenced women

who haunt your stories

Clarice

the drinking
the madness
the suicide
the ordinary

Clarice

for the divine erupts
beneath the surface
of the ordinary

Clarice

the adulteress
utters not a word

when she is burned
at the stake

the executioner
admonishes the crowd:

beware of those
who dream,

Clarice

once gloriously beautiful

now plagued
by the passing of time

age
sickness
and death

Clarice

many were silent

you were not

Clarice

a woman's life

written

by

Clarice.