The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Apocalypse is a respite for the weary
by Amanda Worthington

Whitecaps swell like vengeance

As onlookers muse that

They’ve never seen the sea

Come so close to touching the sky

.

Across the lost continent, firestorms rage,

Long fingers of flame

burning the homes of the rich and poor alike

.

The men fight – nature, one another

Their own unraveling minds

Lose sleep and pray and drink

Demand to know why

.

Like knowing is their right

.

But the women just shake their heads

See the shape in the dark smoke

Building a pillar so solid

It looks like it could be climbed

.

Feel the earth tremble

And then remember that sound is just vibration

Press themselves flat

To hear their mother’s lone proclamation

.

Delivered with finality

And the unspoken promise of peace

.

It is time.

.

One out of ten women in the world lives in abject poverty

One in three women have experienced sexual or physical violence

Around a third of women report that their first sexual encounter was forced

One out of four women is abused physically or sexually while pregnant

Over one billion women can’t read

80 million girls would exist if they had not been murdered at birth

Domestic violence claims more lives

Of girls aged 15-44

Than

Cancer

War

Car accidents

Malaria

Combined.

.

Anger has its roots in fear

And fear belongs to the unknown

And looking to the calamitous skies

The women can only smile

Resign themselves

.

At long last they are going home..

.

Fiction © Copyright Amanda Worthington.
Image courtesy of Pixabay