{"id":58169,"date":"2026-01-26T01:49:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/?p=58169"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:56:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:56:52","slug":"wild-women-dont-have-the-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/wild-women-dont-have-the-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Women Don\u2019t Have the Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\nfunction showWarning_enUS() {\n    var content_warning_list = document.getElementById(\"content-warning-enUS\");\n\n    if (content_warning_list.style.display === \"none\") {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"block\";\n    } else {\n        content_warning_list.style.display = \"none\";\n    }\n}\n<\/script><div lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"content-warning-container-ltr\"><p><strong class=\"content-warning-title\">Content warning:<\/strong><br\/><button onclick=\"showWarning_enUS()\">Show warnings<\/button><\/p><div class=\"content-warning\" id=\"content-warning-enUS\" style=\"display: none;\" ><p>This page contains: <\/p><ul><li>Death\/dying<\/li><li> Shaming<\/li><li> Suicide<\/li><\/ul><\/div><br\/><\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 160px\"><small>\u2014after <em>So Long A Letter<\/em> by Mariama B\u00e2<\/small><\/p>\n<p>A giant throbbing blob of eyeballs hovers<br \/>\nat my front door, long wings flapping,<br \/>\nfat gooey tears dripping, soaking<br \/>\nmy welcome mat.<\/p>\n<p><em>May I come in?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I want to scream and run away<br \/>\nbut what would my mother think,<br \/>\nher good and faithful Christian<br \/>\ndaughter fleeing from God?<\/p>\n<p>I invite the angel inside.<\/p>\n<p>When I return to the dining room<br \/>\nmy hands shake so bad they make<br \/>\nthe cups of tea I carry splash, tinkling.<\/p>\n<p>The angel\u2019s pupils all look<br \/>\nat their tea cup, baffled.<\/p>\n<p>I feel so stupid.<\/p>\n<p>Angels don\u2019t have mouths.<\/p>\n<p><em>Your guardian angel<\/em><br \/>\n<em>has killed herself.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>All I can do is blink.<br \/>\nI was not expecting this.<br \/>\n\u201cI beg your pardon?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n<p><em>I am sorry to tell you this.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut\u2014how? Why?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Yes. Why?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The angel\u2019s pupils dart around<br \/>\nmy house: the unwashed clothes<br \/>\npiled on the sofa, the litter box<br \/>\nreeking, my tangled hair,<br \/>\nall the dust.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For a moment, we are silent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does this mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This means your soul<\/em><br \/>\n<em>will soon be exposed<\/em><br \/>\n<em>to demonic forces.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And you will die.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2014no, no\u2014I mean,<br \/>\ncan\u2019t you bring her back?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lidless, yet I swear<br \/>\nthe angel\u2019s eyes all squint.<\/p>\n<p><em>That is not how this works.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Thank you for the tea.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Abruptly, the angel hovers away<br \/>\nleaving a trail of ooze. They slam<br \/>\nthrough the closed front door,<br \/>\nshattering it to pieces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWait!\u201d I yell, following.<\/p>\n<p><em>I must be going.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The angel ascends<br \/>\nvia holy light.<\/p>\n<p>Like a true sinner, I plead,<br \/>\n\u201cPlease! I don\u2019t wanna die!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Exasperated, the angel spins<br \/>\naround to face me, scowling<br \/>\ndown at me from the clouds.<\/p>\n<p><em>Lady, death is just<\/em><br \/>\n<em>as beautiful<\/em><br \/>\n<em>as life<\/em><br \/>\n<em>has been.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>[Editor's note: You can <a href=\"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/poetry\/poem-analysis-wild-women\/\">click here<\/a> to read Seth Wade's accompanying essay, a part of our criticism special.]<\/em><\/p>\n<br class=\"clear_both\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A giant throbbing blob of eyeballs hovers at my front door, long wings flapping<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[719],"class_list":["post-58169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-content-warning"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82q22-f8d","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58169"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58430,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58169\/revisions\/58430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strangehorizons.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}