The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Bad Girls Run to the Woods  
by Alex Grehy

I remember the day my courses started

how I was kept indoors, no longer a girl,

no longer allowed to laugh or run or play. 

.

I remember how the trappings of womanhood 

were suddenly the community’s concern.

How my mother took me to the Goodwives

who defined the proper forms for a woman.

.

How they tutted and consulted, but not with me,

it was mine to comply, why would I refuse?

My body must now be trapped in corsets,

pressed into more acceptable curves.

.

My hair, long, curly, unbound, must be

straightened, tamed, trapped in a wimple

My eyes must be lowered, my steps small, 

my voice soft, my hands kept too busy for the devil’s call

.

That first night of womanhood, my future felt so 

boundaried and bleak, then the voices sang in my ears

“bad girls run to the woods”. I crept out in my nightdress,

following the sweet robin’s dusk call to freedom. 

.

I danced into the forest’s embrace, but the roots grasped 

my toes, held me still, hard bark grew over my skin, 

my arms, fingers, spasmed, stretched out to the moon, 

my unruly hair flew then set into a corona of twigs.

.

I remember that day, for remembering is what trees do best.

.

They come still, the bad girls, rejecting one incarceration in

favour of another, unknowingly, and my wooden tongue

cannot warn them that their dancing days are over.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

Last Species Standing

Alex Grehy (she/her) enjoys writing quirky, thought-provoking horror and is a regular contributor to The Sirens Call and Ladies of Horror Flash Project. Her fiction and essays on being a lady of horror have featured in a range of publications, including Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora. Alex’s first poetry collection, Last Species Standing, which explores mankind’s relationship with nature and technology, is available on Amazon.

Available on Amazon!