Juliana!
Internet tells me I am Jove’s child.
I’m a goddess??!!
Where I grew up, no one had
my name.
The Queen of Holland had my name.
I wondered why? A Spanish name.
Research explained:
Holland once ruled Spain.
It did not go well.
Juliana!
Internet tells me I am
Aspirational
Benevolent
Honest
Inventive
Original
Is this true?
Maybe. Probably.
Does a name create who
one becomes?
If I had a different name
would I be someone else?
Note: This poem came out of an assignment in a class I am taking with the Story Circle Network, an organization that promotes women writing and telling their stories. The instructor, Yesim Cimcoz, lives in Turkey.
The raven was standing on the little table in the wicked witch’s private room. Expecting a new kind of feast, he dipped his beak into a bowl of wiggly white worms. And spat them clear across the room. “Great Suffering Succotash!” he exclaimed. “What is this stuff?’
El Presidente was enlarging his war against his citizens. This meant the roads were more crowded than before with refugees fleeing the capital city for safety among the farmers on the plains and up in the hills. Some of these refugees arrived, of course, at the farm of the wicked witch.
