Von Aegir Literary
The Axefall
RACHEL PITTMAN
Smoke curls through her veins. She swallows
every fear she has ever known and bares
her teeth to the sky. Girl with steady hands,
with predator grace, with paper armor.
Every kill is a promise she will keep,
a prayer to the god she does not believe
in. They say her smile is laced with wolfsbane,
that trails of fire bloom in her wake, a path
leading from ashes to ashes. She’ll cut
the world’s tree down for kindling, bury
her axe among decapitated roots.
She is not the child running from the wolf,
not the princess in the tower. What else
can a girl be, but powerful or prey?
every fear she has ever known and bares
her teeth to the sky. Girl with steady hands,
with predator grace, with paper armor.
Every kill is a promise she will keep,
a prayer to the god she does not believe
in. They say her smile is laced with wolfsbane,
that trails of fire bloom in her wake, a path
leading from ashes to ashes. She’ll cut
the world’s tree down for kindling, bury
her axe among decapitated roots.
She is not the child running from the wolf,
not the princess in the tower. What else
can a girl be, but powerful or prey?
Rachel Pittman (she/her) is an MFA candidate at McNeese State University and serves as a reader for the McNeese Review. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Gingerbreadhouse, miniskirt mag, Cartridge Lit, and Whale Road Review.
