We Can Take the Power Back: A NEW Review of Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius (Blood Pudding Press, 2017)

Thirsty Bones is not for the fainthearted or those who want to bury the issues women face and live through everyday under the rug of oppression and silence. Sarah Lilius makes it so her reader cannot ignore these things...

As I read the poems “[  ] Culture” and “To My Rapist,” I thought about my own dark, hidden experiences as a woman and how I don’t know if I will ever be courageous enough to open my mouth and utter them. Thirsty Bones left me with the hope that maybe one day I will be able to share all my experiences as a woman, and that women around the world will be able to do so as well. Lilius shows us that we can face our demons and demolish them. We can take the power back. The last few stanzas of “[  ] Culture” exemplify this: “My silence, the place I hide, overgrown / with weeds, they smell fresh, / shaking their seeds from green heads. // Now it’s laid out like a snake suddenly / on a table, I want to cut off the head, / feed it to my rapist in the dark. // And when he screams NO, / maybe I’ll take it out or maybe / I’ll make him eat it / with open eyes.”

from a new review of  the poetry chapbook, Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius (Blood Pudding Press, 2017)

thank you to Christina Rosso and Rag Queen Periodical for this review.

Read the entire review HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/07/31/We-Can-Take-the-Power-Back-A-Review-of-Lilies-Thirsty-Bones

Acquire your own copy of Thirsty Bones HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/522735584/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_feat_1

A Copy of Thirsty Bones

John Burroughs' copy of Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius, surrounded by other books. :)

Get your very own copy of the new Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, Thirsty Bones, HERE - 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/522735584/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_feat_1

NEW Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius (Blood Pudding Press 2017)

"Moments make girls
into women with blood
down white thighs.

Make a boy into Zeus without honor.
His act done in secret
because that’s what gods do.

We dwell on packages
made of sticks and stones,
bones and flesh."

from the poem "Leda's Repression" by Sarah Lilius,within her NEW Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, Thirsty Bones

Available HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/522735584/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_feat_1

NEW! Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius is now newly available from Blood Pudding Press

Thirsty Bones is a NEW Blood Pudding Press 2017 poetry chapbook, containing 20 poems by Sarah Lilius.

A powerful emotional political statement about the female body. How it can be viewed and treated like a toy, victimized, abused and then just overlooked or ignored. How it can live on, fight back, and will not be silenced and will not feel obligated to keep its own experiences or genuine feelings or individual self a secret.

How nobody else should think they have the power to be in charge of your own body based choices.

***

"Rape, you are an animal.
The media gives you cookies,
you’ve grown fat, snarling from the cave.
I open my eyes to your terror.

Your world has been created.
We need to cut the power to your brightness,
lights flicker, this lightning is not fireflies
wild against dark sky, waiting for palms to cup.

We need more sound. To open our chests, display
lungs and let out the words.
Women, your screams, even muffled,
weren’t silent. They grow inside, canyons of dirty sound."

from the poem [ ] Culture

***

Get your own copy of Thirsty Bones HERE - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress?ref=seller-platform-mcnav&section_id=20952110