The Emperor's Babe Quotes

“To leave a whisper of myself in the world, my ghost, a magna opera of words.”
― Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe

“my fingers penetrated your bushy hair, pulled it up in tufts, squeezed the tension out of your head, to your quiet, grateful groans. I untied the Gordian knots in your shoulders with juniper oil, pummelled your back with my fists, knuckle each vertebrae down to your coccyx, knead your hard buttocks, rub oil into your legs, bathe your tired feet, squeeze them until your tingles shoot up my arm, I chew each toe in turn until it is softened, bite into your soles like a joint of pork, you cannot help but giggle, sir, I turn you over, with my palms, rotate your temples, trace the curves on your face, touching yet not, three fingers inside your mouth, let you suckle, baby, from belly to breast, I massage your chest in concentric circles, pinch your nipples, nibble gently, set my belly-dancer tongue on to them, take your hands, my love, tie them above your head, with your belt, I sit astride my steed, take the reins, my flexible muscles holding you in, flexing like strong fists, tighten and release, teasing you, taming you, your eyes are shut, you have died and gone to Olympus, smiling, I slap it off, so hard my hand hurts, your eyes shoot open like a dead man dying, I slap you again, you feign amusement, your eyes suggest so this is slap and tickle? I take your riding crop, fold it, lash your chest. ‘Take that!’ I hiss. ‘How dare you humour me. Who’s the boss now?”
― Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe

“CAPISTRUM MARITALE (The Matrimonial Halter)
- Juvenal

I

Ripples in your watery skin,
unseen beneath the volume

of groans. I hover
above the marital bed, the cat-gut

seams of our mattress split.
(3 courses, not 8, should suffice, mea delicia.)

II

Legs straight, you like me tight,
it is your size (and shame),

you tore me unformed,
drew blood before eggs ripened.

If I had a little girl...
I would call her... Claudia.

III

I have known only this, a shiver,
a million dreams expelled:

'Was I good?' Magnifico! I gasp,
floating down, swim

to the wash bowl, your dead sons
trickling down my legs.”
― Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe

“When you’re a slave you dream of either owning slaves or freeing them.”
― Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe

“You’re either a figure for fucking or a fucking freak. Everyone needs a one-and-only after a while. I’m twenty-two, Zuky-do. Middle aged! A Venus must ’ave an Adonis. Even if it’s just for a while. Bronzed, rippling, adoring, preferably, compliant, essentially. Someone to come home to, to cook a pease pudding for of a winter’s night. Look at the facts.”
― Bernardine Evaristo, The Emperor's Babe