Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1620

Brianna Coleman

Artemisia becomes Judith

when she picks up her brush

feminine rage on canvas

two women united to slay

the beast, Holofernes

his body resisting, coward

now who is weak?

mutilated on white satin

sheets, where he violated

until this final defeat,

his sword thrust into Adams

apple by the hand

of a woman, liberated

Blood soaks her velvet

gown, I wonder

did she place his head on a pike?

evidence of his crimes

or was it forgiven

in the garden, his brain

rotted inside out, birds

plucking the eyes that devoured

without permission, her story

repeats itself four centuries,

women fighting for the day

we take our bodies back

and relieve Judith