The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!
What we make, only we can break
by Alex Grehy
Trust, that is what our society thrives on,
trust, and secrets never disclosed.
.
I am of the Makers, of generations wedded to the
deep earth, mother to daughter, whispering our
sacred craft, the bonding of souls to vessels
shaped on the potter’s wheel, a wheel of life.
.
We are well rewarded for our labour, sealing,
as we do, our population’s spark of immortality
within these plaques, displayed proud but safe
in our vaults, for none can break these nameplates.
.
So they believe, so they trust, so they forget.
Forget to be grateful, forget to sustain us with
tributes, forget that each plate has two sides,
that makers too are breakers, that hands
which moulded may also destroy.
.
I stand in apparent humility, gathering my strength
for the ritual of breaking; the maker’s secret, never
revealed, then or now. As the plates smash and spit
across the stone floor, they will drop dead, unknowing.
We trusted them to provide for us, who dedicated our
lives to them, but their faithless betrayal spelled their end.
.
I will sweep the broken shards and grind them to dust.
At the potters wheel I will mix the grog with fresh clay,
finer than the homely terracotta we gifted them before.
I will spin life into new peoples. Maybe the fragile
porcelain of their making will remind them to be grateful.
.
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.
Spreading the Writer's Word 