Unholy with Eyes like Wolves

by Morgan Dante

She’s pretty, and reminds me of a childhood friend, Zuzanny, who I once kissed, as girls do, under an apricot tree.

I only offer a pleasant expression, hoping they may think me simple. That way, they underestimate me.

The strong eat the weak, and the weak are shamed for it; sometimes, the strong make the weak eat their own.

to have some role in molding her, of seeing who she is before she steps out into the world and then witnessing who she becomes under my hands. I can have some pride that I have given this dragon her scales and wings.

With Countess Báthory, I must treat her like a pomegranate: gently.

If St. Saturnina can rise and thrive to be a beloved daughter of God, so can I.

“Perhaps. I don’t know. None of us are without sin. They have no right to judge. I don’t.”

Holy water cannot save us if God decides we are unworthy.”

As her long, precise fingers drape over my knuckles, and she inspects my wound, I think to myself, Erzsébet. Erzsébet, but no saint. I could still worship her.

Perhaps the Tower of Babel’s destruction didn’t only create different languages of speaking; it created different languages of being. No matter what, no matter what I say, I am alien to all others.

can’t deny being a girl and taking pots from the kitchen and throwing in petals, sticks, grass, small bones I found with the hopes of weaving charms.

As a girl fretting about taking up too much space and having my hands and knees smacked, power from nothing sounded appealing.

“Sometimes I think I have never been a woman. Perhaps as a child, I was a girl. Never a woman. Not a man either, really.”

I began to feel the cutting laces of womanhood, before I ever experienced girlhood.

If one has a chance to kiss an angel, no matter how terrifying, or if you turn to salt or ash, wouldn’t you?

don’t impress your shame on me. I’ve carried much for decades.

“After all, little wolf, she’s seen you soaked in blood before, and she didn’t run away.”

"Is this it, after all these months? Are we really meant to go on and pretend I'm simply a normal handmaiden to the rest of the world? Me, so bloodstained."

I believe Christ said that we should pray in private, lest we be like the hypocrites who need everyone to see and compliment their goodness.”

“I don’t need you to be good to want to protect you