maenads

Briar Henderson

The girls are

feeling lethal tonight

in their sequins

and dollar-shop

body glitter

drunk and

skink-tongued

off Vodka Cruisers

grinding their heels

in the mud

sun-bleached denim

short shorts and

white-lace singlets

in the winter –

bitches don’t feel the cold

& they’re half-dog

They’re stealing

boyfriends

because they’re

dead persuasive

chewing

bubble mint cud

sticky-mouthed

& more fun than you

they know how to shoot rifles

and collect pet possums

in rhine-stoned collars

Cruising around

in a convoy of

Suzuki Swifts

horse-girls

of the apocalypse

artificial grape fumes

& sweat from

the illegal amount of

passengers

hanging out of windows

catcalling – wolf-whistling

strangers

in the cocksure way

men do

They dance around

in acne-scarred

paddocks

in nothing

but filthy gumboots

like pin-up

cowgirls

gone bush.

Image source: La Fête Des Bois, Les Bacchantes, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, c.1890s [artera.ae].

—

Briar Henderson is an English graduate currently completing a Masters of Professional Writing at the University of Waikato. She loves to write about femininity, small towns & Greek mythology & has previously been published in Mayhem Literary Journal.