She endured his stomping body, his hollering voice.
Her hands were too exhausted to form a fist.
And she clenched her jaw to not make a sound.
Every single word would be wrong, would enrage him more.
Audacious. He needed to vent and she was forced into silence.
And I looked at her in my head, hearing his circus in the kitchen.
How could she find the courage to walk out on a defeated man?
I cannot grow in these parameters, I refuse to, there is no air.
She had it in her, it needed to be excavated, her autonomy,
Her freedom. To act despite her accumulating fears.
To draw a million lines across his body that shouted separation.
He had villainised her for too long in his night-time performances.
She abdicated the leading part in his narcissistic madhouse.
He buried himself in his detrimental fantasies and he couldn’t take her down with him.
“Peggy Letellier” by Paul César Helleu (1859-1927)
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My name is Laura Gentile. I’m of German-Italian descent and I speak five languages such as English, German, French, Italian, Luxembourgish and I’m currently learning Romanian.
I hold a Master of Arts Degree in English Literature, Film and Visual Culture (Dissertation: The Decadent in Love with his Psychopomp: Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' and Adrian Lyne's 'Lolita') and a Master of Letters by Research in English Literature, Film and Visual Culture (Thesis: Romanticising Decadence and Aestheticising Death: Women as Projection Bodies and Mimetic Identities in Zola’s 'Thérèse Raquin', Schnitzler’s 'Dream Story', Süskind’s 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' and Eugenides’ 'The Virgin Suicides').
My debut novel, 'Within Paravent Walls', will be published by WiDo Publishing / E. L. Marker.
I am the creator of "Croque-Melpomene: Femalecentric Poetry" and I have a YouTube channel carrying the same name.
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YouTube: Croque-Melpomene
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Contact Email Address: croquemelpomene@gmail.com
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