The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Courtesan: 1804 
by Marge Simon

For you, I dance the Odissi,

gold bangles on my wrists,

fingers stained with bright magic,

a gem on every toe to enhance

your leisure or goad your lust.

You find me in every court,

behind the Jacquard velvet curtains,

between the crevasses of time,

commanding your eyes with my grace,

your ears with my poetry.

You know my ways–

my breath on your neck,

my thirst, like passion,

driven by an irrepressible need,

as with all desires of the flesh.

You allow me to unwind your turban,

wrap the strips around your wrists.

I weave my fingers in your hair,

rub my breasts against your own,

let my tongue play games

upon your flesh until you moan,

release your royal seed;

at climax, I plunge my fangs

deep into your noble vein–

a fair exchange of pleasures.

When the sitar dies,

I have you either way.

Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Marge Simon:

Victims
by Marge Simon and‎ Mary Turzillo

The title of this collection sets you up for the surprise of lyrical stories of victimizations with unexpected endings for the villains. Be ready to have your heart opened and cheer for perceived victims, human (made and unmade) and other life forms, victorious in the hands of these two award-winning poets. —Linda D. Addison, award-winning author, HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and SFPA Grand Master.

Across histories and cultures and from Auschwitz to Babylon this book leaves you questioning who are the victims, and regardless of your conclusion you’re likely to get throat-punched. This is horror where everyone has a knife, and is ready to deliver this message: “Remember, you are always guilty. —Herb Kauderer, author of Fragments from the Book of the After-Dead.

Simon and Turzillo have only gone and startled me again. What a collection! Brutal. Beautiful. This quiver of poems strikes with the unflinching truth of persecution and oppression as seen through the lens of feminism. Prepare to come away bruised and yet strangely bolstered by Victims, a symphony of sadness orchestrated by two masters of dark poetry. —Lee Murray, Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-winner.

This is one of the braver dark poetry collections I’ve seen in a while. Horror poets generally employ victims in their work, but the focus is generally on the Evil. Turning the camera the other way is unusual, unsettling, emotionally risky, and surprisingly effective. From their stark opening take on Pygmalion, to the ending poem about the wasted life of Stateira of Persia, this powerful collection teases apart an impressive number of the threads of victimhood. Some are the usual cases, but quite a few are surprises, or reversals, or cases with unexpected layers. There is nothing repetitive about this collection. —Timons Esaias, winner of the Asimov’s Readers’ Award and the Winter Anthology Contest

Available on Amazon!