The Writer's E-Zine Home

Writers' Village University - F2K: Free Fiction Writing Course - ePress-online
Writers' Village University Membership Information

Poetics Presents

Suzanne Pérez

I am an eighteen year old who loves to write, read and listen to music. The poem "Lament of a Vestal Priestess" is the first poem I ever wrote about a Roman Goddess, although I have always been fascinated by mythology. I came to write "Lament of a Vestal Priestess," after reading the book "Mythology" by Edith Hamilton, and I remember thinking that to have been a Vestal priestess must have been...well...very very sad. In this poem, I intended to portray the goddess as a cruel and beautiful tyrant depriving the priestess from all the earthly pleasures she would have liked to experience.

Writers' Village members look forward to reading more of Suzanne's work.

Lament of a Vestal Priestess When did you, goddess, deem yourself a sun Crushing the folds of your skirt in our hearts? Those gilded, incandescent petals run Like amber corollas shooting their darts. In the desert of stone, of woman-cries, We pale, virgin damsels rise to stoke flames. And you glow on, as day wakes, as day dies, Sun yolks pour down like lapidary rains. The cruel mirage is cast, wreathing our dreams. Do not all women pray for a child? We drown in those milky, sunflower streams, And the warmth of the sun is so mild Next to you, goddess, next to your fair glare. Your moons are babies we shall never bear. Copyright © 2000 Suzanne Pérez