what is dead may never die…
The drowned goddess took to the grave with her all the stories she used to tell herself,
"I'm not good enough. my voice doesn't matter. no one's listening. no one cares. I have no impact.”
She gathered them close, they rustled and poked savagely at her skin. they were still spitting whispers as they were nuzzled, muffled, into her breast.
finally,
she sank into the wet darkness.
after a dim eternity, out of the grey, a small light grew larger. then the drowned goddess emerged from the cold with a gasp, eyes snapping open. her gaze immediately fell to what she had been so tightly grasping…
unbelievably, she found herself clutching not the brittle, thorny stories of the past, but supple, green buds glistening with a dewy, radiating power.
a surge of strength came to the drowned goddess as she stood, swaths of water falling from her body like tears. the salt was bittersweet on her tongue, but in her eyes was a startling, golden glow of a shameless and audacious determination to live.
the buds began to blossom in her arms as she stepped forth into the welcoming glow of the dusk.
