Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

I’m a Mexican-American poet and painter inspired by folklore, myth, lupine and salt. My work has been published or is forthcoming in Dark Mountain, Rattle, Luna Luna, Immanence, Alaska Women Speak and Venus Magazine.

The Divine Harlot

She lives deep
in the Wildwood,
surrounded
with brown
and blue wrens.

They land
on her arms
and shoulders
as she steps onto
the warm dirt.

The Divine
Harlot sells honey
to those that stumble
in the deep
of the Wood,
covered in rose petals
and thorns
and blue and brown
wisps of feathers.

Of course
she’s beautiful,
but that’s not the right
question to ask.

Would she hold you.

Yes.

Tenderly,
as though
you were a prayer
whispered along
smooth sandalwood
beads.

A sacred name
she prayed into being,
into becoming.

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