Persephone Made Me Do It Quotes

“I can return to the meadow,
but I can never be that girl again.
Not knowing what I know now.

I can't have justice
so I settle for power.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“I never made my homes out of places. Not
physical places, anyway. I made my homes
out of paper places. Nothing ever felt safer
or more real than the worlds inside my
head. I grew up on books. Hungry and
never satiated. I grew up ravenous
for words, which of course is why
I started writing them down. Tried
making homes out of people for a
while but it didn’t work out. Now
I make poems out of them instead
and still don’t have anyplace
I feel like I belong.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Loneliness has always been kinder to me than men have been.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Couldn’t conceive
of a woman with power
so they rewrote me without it,
stripped me of my titles
and made me walk through fire
to reclaim them,
wrote me wounded
and then twisted the knife.
Which version came first?
Which version matters?
You want to know
what happened to me?
I was a girl.
Now I am a god.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“In the name of Persephone,
I embrace my duality.
The day and night in me
no longer frighten me.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Fine,
I will unhinge my jaw
and take a bite of the world
like it's a ripe peach
and I won't even
wipe the juice from my face.

Fine,
I will live.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“to dream of pomegranate and honey, to kiss the mirror with lipstick on, to stop and smell the roses, to take a punch, to knock some teeth out, to sneak into your mother’s room and try on her perfume, to run away from home, to be reborn, to be abandoned, to steal into God’s garden and strip the trees bare, to thirst for knowledge, to look for more, to want and want and want and want, to become something else, to cocoon, to transform, to miss a home you can never return to, to return anyway, to shower with the lights off, to be indelicate and deliberate, to kick, to scream, to bleed, to be, to hold hands with yourself, to outgrow every box they put you in, to get knocked down and then get up again and again and again and again and again and”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“At some point all girls feel like they are too much. Too soft. Too loud. Too needy. Too angry. Too human.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“The unkillable woman.
Watch how she crawls
back from every grave
ever dug for her.
Watch how she endures
and endures and endures.
Watch how she overcomes”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Let your contradictions and complexity stand in defiance of a world that trained you to be bite-sized and easily consumable.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“She says,
How can you be mad at me?
I created you.

I say,
That is why
I am angry.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Men have been abducting women since the dawn of time, so maybe I shouldn't have been surprised when it happened to me. And still, with my face smashed down in the dirt, I was surprised.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Persephone is staring at herself in the mirror. Persephone is staring at her younger self in the mirror. A girl in a meadow. Like a ghost or a dream. Close enough to touch. Persephone drops her torches and reaches her hand through the mirror, feels the familiar breeze of the Elysian Fields, smells the flowers of the dead. She takes the girl’s hand.

“You still have so much life in front of you,” Persephone says. She feels a tinge of jealousy but she doesn’t speak it. “You’re going to be amazing.”

“It’s time for me to leave now, isn’t it?” the girl asks. Persephone nods solemnly. The girl sulks. She turns her back to the mirror, eyes searching for the path home.

“One thing before you go,” Persephone says. She steps out into the sun, onto the field, wild hair and black robes billowing behind her. She pulls the girl tightly to her chest.

I love you.
And I miss you.
And I will be missing you forever, girl.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“I’ve been chewed up and spat out and repackaged so many times you don’t even realize how often you’ve heard my story.

I’ve been a thousand women.

I’ve lived a thousand lives.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“...Telling pieces of the same story.
Telling stories so similar
They may as well be the same.
Let me call you by my name.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Sometimes I go out looking
for the girl I used to be,
but I can never find her.

The face in the mirror
isn’t wrong. It’s just
not what I remember.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It

“Flowers and rain.
Fire and blood.
I feel nothing
and everything
all at once.”
― Trista Mateer, Persephone Made Me Do It