The Annunciation
Shullie H Porter
You shouldn ’ t believe everything you are told . The reality of it is not something people in polite company should want to tell their children , never mind make into a fairy story .
There was no agreed Hieros Gamos and no heavenly blessings laid brightly upon my head .
If the truth be known , I was a girl of twelve . Twelve . How could I consent ? How could I understand what it all meant ?
I was asleep on my bed , laid innocent in the darkness , dreaming as children do . Then for some reason , even now I am not sure what , I woke up to see him there . Hidden in the shadows , a man in white linen , watching . At first , I thought I was dreaming , but it was no vision , no fantasy . He moved faster than the breeze and was upon me before I could escape . I tried to scream , to call for help , but he stuffed my mouth with white feathers .
When he Penetrated me , he tore asunder my betulot , ripping me open for the world to see . My soul shattered and fragmented , so in that very moment , I dissipated . Hiding for centuries in the shards of Other .
He said it shouldn ’ t have been like that . He said I should have submitted willingly and with Grace . He said I didn ’ t deserve the honour that had been given to me . I told him , I didn ’ t want it . He snarled . His lip curled and brought an averse cruelty to his beauty . He said it was my own fault , that he had to Overshadow me . He said girls like me were suppose to be grateful , but we never were .
A erwards , he slept , exhausted by his tribute , while I lay upon the dank remnants of my broken seal and his celestial shpriz . Rivers fit for Babylon flooded from me , pooling upon my belly and thence parting Fourways . Broken boundaries .
As the Morning Star rose , he disappeared , leaving a bouquet of Broken Lilies at the bottom of my bed . Their piercing stems forever directing the gaze of men to my humiliation .
The ashes of Tamar ’ s were not for my head and unlike Dinah , I had no brothers to claim back my asset . Anyhow , who ’ d believed me if I ’ d told them I ’ d been plundered by a Virtuous Brother of the Fallen ?