Shakespeare's Curse

Shakespeare's Curse

Written by Arez Lebedynska

All the world's a stage for men,

the women are only actors in marriages or brothels,

pulled apart by society at their hem

because no clothes could purify whore who isn't docile.

A goddess starts being such at birth, the first to follow her to death is mother.

A baby that is still virgin would hope not to suffer, at least not yet

beneath the eye of a man.

Sadly, all bitches grow up to be a bother.

Women are stars before their bodies are transformed.

The feme sole can strive beyond the sealed jars her future seems to hold.

She runs lands and laughs regardless of the marriage her father's planned.

It will swallow her whole.

She turns to a feme covert, a peach that is still pure for eyes lustful enough to have discovered

what lies beneath the silk and dirt.

Coverture doesn't sound as elegant in dependent lands as couverture,

where the female carcass is praised beyond its nature of allure.

So the poison is still drunk

and the ship hasn't only sailed, it sunk.

Exactly as her appetite has shrunk

and she fell pregnant

with the child of a dim-witted skunk.

If Venus had known about the stages of women, she wouldn't have disappeared.

The sly would've cleared, and femininity not associated with hysteria,

wives not to be idle.

For millennia women wouldn't wear the scold's bridle.

But death is a woman, death is not for the weak.

You will never hear them shriek.

She last stage of the life feme is being a vessel.

Men and children will condemn and there will be nothing left of the girl who was born to be a gem.

All women die before their death certificate.

Sans love, sans comfort, sans significance.

Arez is an 18 year old woman from Ukraine, who has devoted many years to poetry already. In poetry and metaphors, she sees the depth of all life and emotions, which is what makes this art so precious to her. You can view her poems on tiktok: @red.poet