Letters From Medea Quotes

“the centre of every poem is this:
The centre of every poem is this:
I have loved you. I have had to deal with that.

— Salma Deera, Letters from Medea (2015)”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“you will rise.
and are you less of a woman for this? no
what is woman?
woman is this—enduring.
listen girl, you will survive this–you will.
but what fool said you had to do it silently?
here is a tip—scream”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“Take back your rib, Eve cries.
I didn't want it. I never did. It is weighing me down.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“in your dream, you are jealous of tragedies.
and the truth is, we all want our own tragedy,
because life is pale without it.
we want the teeth, the screaming.
the survival
that comes with it.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“she says to me:
'if you want to hurt a man, you don't kill
the man. you kill what he loves.'
i nod.
and then i ask her: 'so how do you hurt a woman?'
she answers:
'my child, a woman is hurting from the moment of birth.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“i want to discover myself.
i want to destroy myself.
i want to be a secret that nobody but i can ruin.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“listen girl,’ Medea says, ‘you are
not the first person in the world to
suffer from a broken heart.
but i will treat you like you are.
listen girl. he is not calling out your name.
your name to him is nothing.
it might have been before.
once, your name might have been
the only word he knew when he
was blind sad or bursting with sun.
those days are over.
your name can only exist in your own mouth now.
say it over and over. say it until it doesn’t sound
like a name, but just a sound.
the promises he made you are just sounds now too. remember that.
your hands are what will hold you together now.
and you want to be mad? be mad.
here is a plate. throw it through his window,
listen to the crack. the shatter. laugh into the night.
call yourself the sun. see, you will rise.
and are you less of a woman for this? no
what is woman?
woman is this–enduring.
listen girl, you will get over this– you will.
but what fool said you had to do it silently?
here is a tip – scream”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“it's like this:
say there's a whole room of people and you're somewhere in the middle of them all.
i walk in and i see you, but you don't suddenly become the only person in the room. god no. you become the room. you are the room.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“but tell me, who was it that made you dangerous?

it was no one.

it was me.


it was everyone.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“my curse is that i fall in love with
men who believe in gods but not in me.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“Call me by a man’s name instead of a woman’s, and suddenly every horrific thing I’ve done makes me a hero.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“and you laugh.
loudly--
head tipping back.
and while your eyes
are on the ceiling,
i am mouthing
something too heavy even
for this steady night to shoulder.
‘this is not a joke.’ i mouth.
‘love me. love me.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“when i love, it happens almost all at once.
it is inconsiderate, unrefined -
a child screeching in a supermarket
it's a thunderclap.
it is a small village blackout.
it is aphrodite rising from the sea foam, fully formed.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“but i want to ask her what is wrong with being dark and heavy
with your feet firmly on soil?”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“you are ares' lost sister.
goddess of sedated battles and lost girls.
always full of other people and never yourself.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“in astronomy class, the muse urania angrily watches a panel of men talk about the wonders of the stars as though they created them.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“The centre of every poem is this:
I have loved you. I have had to deal with that.

— Salma Deera, Letters from Medea (2015)”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“some boys will give you the
sun so you can bloom.
but other boys will give you the sun
to watch you melt.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“love is just a synonym for absinthe.
absinthe is a synonym for 'i don't
know what i'm doing anymore.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“i am a human body turned inside out.
my soft skin is saved for me alone.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“you want to know the logic behind my actions?
here is one explanation:
call me by a man’s name instead of a woman’s,
and suddenly every horrific thing i’ve done
makes me a hero.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea

“you are suitable for my skin type-
my life type
my heart type.”
― Salma Deera, Letters From Medea