There Is Strength in Our Stories: Crushed Petals – Kelly Glover

Women are silent flowers Prettiest when quiet We do not wilt When they crush our petals Strip our leaves Our divine feminine roots Remain and regenerate Exquisite thorns sharpen We are walking targets With bullseye breasts Shot with shame From the moment of fertility The blood of life Natural as breath Yet taboo table talk …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Phoenix – Nikki Marrone

I was told to wait, For a man to come my way. The one who would wear the crown, And ride the golden mare. Whose stare would have me enamoured for a lifetime. A man so great I would prostrate myself on an altar of “love.” Devote myself to deities of death and destruction. Find …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Dear G—River Stillwood

April 23, 2017 Dear G---, Six months ago today you came for Sunday dinner at my home, drugged and sexually assaulted me. You continue to deny it, to tell everyone I “came on to you,” “it was mutual,” but you and I both know the truth. The police know, too. They know the drug was …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Beneath the Layered Makeup – Rachael Ikins

The July day I turned 8, we piled into my mom's green Plymouth, drove to town from camp. Errands. She parked in front of the butcher shop. Worn stone steps, doorbell jingled, our feet creaked across a board floor. A man who looked like Santa's brother greeted us. Stained apron tied over his belly, straw …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: a night’s expectation – quinn hsu

when they told you people would love you for who you are you never expected a love for you as squirmingly as your tongue against the mirror shards of porcelain hemming it in a love as fast and bitingly as a bear trap’s chrome jaws tearing at you desperately until all that’s left is a …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Ruby – LL McGlynn

No matter what she said, or what solution she came up with, he blew it off, as if nothing she could say would ever make sense. Her comments were not logical to him, the rational one, and nothing she could say would ever help the situation not even in the smallest way, which is exactly …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: walk these streets at night and know the truth – Evelyn Benvie

load your lipstick in a gatling gun to get ready for the night the sidewalk cracks are too wide for stilettos and too deep for anything else wear fishnets to trawl the river, sift and dredge the filth at the bottom and the scum at the top and you, panting as you run seeking shelter …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: The Gift- aj forrester

  Like a raft I float on vicious waves with what you gave; you stole. Made me less made me more. You gave confusion and shame. Blame. The gift remains: in me, I found strength. Like fire hardens steel, nightmares burn my heart, my brain. I strain; I’d give it back, though, if I could; …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Rubber Gloves – Taylor Warner

Today I stumbled over a page in my journal that read: “One day I will write about your rubber gloves And how each time they entered me They delivered desperate hope And how every time they exited me They took with them a piece of my soul I thought I’d never get back.” Well, here …

There Is Strength in Our Stories: Double Dip – kkc

I told old man in the white uniform with cherry stains on it that I didn't want his flavor he was about to scoop. So he scooped it anyway. His words to me were " little girl, you will taste what I dish out" Shoved cone in my face Salty tears slid down landing on …