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Helena Awakened

Zoe Burke

And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,

Mine own, and not my own. 

​

- Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream 

The nightmare over, our lives 

ended with a double-wedding-- 

yet I dare not open my eyes 

in the fear I am still dreaming. 

Hermia would lose nothing, but I 

would lose everything, again. And 

Demetrius, he would see how much 

he's lost. I found a fairy in the garden,

and I was afraid. But he bade me hush

and drew me in with the promise of a 

spritely secret, a marital secret called 

love-in-idleness. What if one dose 

wasn’t a cure for love-by-idollness? 

Plucking pansy petal after petal in the kettle,

he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. I was

once his spaniel, 

but never will I be his bitch.

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