Stronger Female Characters
Like a Salamander
It was raining when she woke up. She could hear it falling just outside her window. Making it that much harder to get out of bed. Summer was the rainy season, the Hurricane Season. When that parade of swirling storms would line up off the African coast and start making its way towards the Caribbean, Cuba and Florida. She could picture women in the eyes of those swirling storms, spinning like flamenco dancers. The thunderous clash of castanets above, trembling stomping of high heeled feet below those heavy, billowing skirts. Myth-makers would have called them goddesses, come to demand tribute. But she knew it had something to do with the warm water of the Atlantic, something meteorological, about pressure systems and wind patterns. She listened for the thunder outside and thought, “people don’t believe in gods anymore.” She had been in Miami for 5 years now. She often felt living in the climate lent itself to feeling slightly reptilian. The constant heat and humidity had a sedative effect. The blood thickened, the skin slicked. Yesterday the sun was out and she had lounged with the other lizards, sipping rum and basking on the beach. Today she would perch, cat-like, by the balcony windows and watch the rains hammer down on the empty and flooding streets.
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Stronger Female Characters
When she was thirteen she had a crush on a boy in her class. His eyes were tawny almonds and his smile was mischievous and kind. His family was from India, she loved the Naan bread his mother made. They smoked weed together after school and he taught her about the Hindu gods. She learned that Indra was the Hindu King of all the Devas, Lord of Heaven, God of War, Storms, and Rainfall. She learned that the rainbow was Indra's war bow. He gave her a miniature statue of the Goddess Kali. She loved her wild hair, her four arms wielding weapons and a terrifying severed head. She thought of that docile woman of her grandmother’s faith, the Virgin Mary. Baby Jesus cradled in her arms, golden halo, silken robes, eyes turned inward and away. This, she thought, looking into Kali’s fierce eyes, bare breasts, and snake-like tongue, now this is a Divine Mother of Creation.
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Daily Horoscope
She grabs the newspapers tourists leave behind in the hotel lobbies on Ocean Drive. She drinks Cuban coffee at Lario’s while she skims the articles and takes her time with the crossword puzzle. She laughs at the horoscopes but reads them anyway. Pisces, February 19 - March 20: Your mind is taking a mystical turn this week. Be open to the All-Mother, Our One Universe, there will be signs. Keep your senses heightened, be wary of the twin Gemini. Say yes to unexpected opportunities. This is a month of reconstruction, gather your strength and remain present. Only the phoenix rises and does not descend.
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The Cult of Inanna
She loves history, but not the kind they teach you in school. She takes a bag of green apples and spends hours at the library reading the other histories. She reads about the ancient matriarchal societies, she reads about the warrior women, she reads about the goddesses. Her favorite is the Mesopotamian Goddess, Inanna. The male priests of Inanna’s temples dressed in women’s clothing and adopted women’s names. Her worshippers practiced sacred sex and ritual prostitution. Men and women alike and all those in between, giving, taking, and ultimately sacrificing something of themselves.
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On the Main Stage
She dances like she doesn't care if they're watching. She dances like she doesn't care if they pay. They always do. It's her first set of the evening and the strobe lights are pulsing, reflecting off her clear, lucite-spiked heels. She watches the men seated around her. She is invisible to them. Their eyes are hungry gnats that swarm and swarm and do not see. She dances anyway, she dances them away.