Jane Satterfield
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Cursing for Beginners
“‘Curse tablets’ are small sheets of lead, inscribed with messages from individuals seeking to make gods and spirits act on their behalf and influence the behaviour of others against their will. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent . . ."
“What options were available to the victims of theft or other crime? In theory in Britain Roman law applied to Roman citizens and local laws to non-citizens . . . However in an ‘under-policed’ society, it was necessary to use social or political connections to bring the law to bear. For those lacking such connections, divine patrons, appropriately addressed, were perhaps the only hope." –Curse Tablets from Roman Britain
Let the tablet of lead nix
nicety’s danse macabre.
Let it wreak vengeance
for linen and luck stolen,
let it speak appeals gone
unheard, cases that get
no traction, injuries
at the hand of civil servants,
undutiful daughters, underlings
bearing bouquets of nettles green
as mint with the venom
of hidden sting. Let it stand
for the wish to dull and fatigue,
bring to account, exact and redeem
money or malice; with repeated
prayers and coin, make weary with
every hardship. Cross-hatched with runes
and the morning’s epigraphs of light,
let it be folded and fixed, stabbed
seven times, needled with pins
and nails. Driven down
into a spring or sunken pool,
legible to the god alone, let this
memorandum guarantee no rest
before/unless/until. Who has acted badly
been poorly disposed, or privy to this
taking away, whether slave or free, male
or female—in the absence of concord
or complete amends, let there be
no buying off these provocations unless
with their own blood.
Why I Won’t Attend My Sister-In-Law’s “For Your Pleasure Party”
It’s not that it wouldn’t be fun to slip on
a backless dress, strip off
professor-speak to clink Cosmos
& peek at the latest Bliss vibrator,
the beginner’s bondage kit complete
with its cat-o’-nine tails and door jamb
cuffs. Fun to nibble a little Fantasy Foam—I know
there’s always more life to unleash,
that in marriage the passion connection’s
essential to keep. I’ll admit since mortgaging
myself to the hilt I’ve started to skimp a bit,
that even my best lace bra & knickers
are laddered, no better than retreads,
our sheets starting to get just a little shopworn.
So it’s not that I’m entirely immune to your sweet
invitation, not really opposed to learning
new tricks. Oh, I get
that you’re bored with the babies,
the diaper routine; I don’t judge your way
of becoming “an independent business associate.”
Earning cash & toy credits, why not show off
a little while laughing all the way to the bank?
But, dear, I’ve been there for bake-offs & bbqs,
the princess parties where I’ve shown up smiling,
happily crowned. Trust me, says Kama,
another sister-in-law, There are things
you just don’t want to know. I’d rather burn
in hell or a hot slow shower
than in the shame of knowing
the pleasures a brother does or doesn’t provide—
So if my refusal makes me a prude, then say it—
I wouldn’t have lasted a second
in the Tudor court given over
to gossip & systems of spies.
Just this once let me beg off or bag out,
leave you to enjoy lingerie, laughter &
other “enhancements.” Let me plead—
not my belly —but my carbon footprint—.
Just this once let me stay home & douse
my dry, damaged, chemically-treated hair or
husband with community-traded honey.
In every dream home, I’ll hum, there may be a heartache
but for now let Roxy Music shake the walls,
while we take our pleasure, familiar measures of synthesizers & sin.
"Why I Won't Attend my Sister-in-Law's 'For Your Pleasure Party'" first appeared in Her Familiars (Elixir, 2013).
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Jane Satterfield is the author of three poetry collections—Her Familiars (Elixir, 2013), Assignation at Vanishing Point (Elixir Press Book Award, 2003) and Shepherdess with an Automatic (WWPH, Towson University Prize for Literature, 2000)—as well as Daughters of Empire: A Memoir of a Year in Britain and Beyond. Her honors include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry, the William Faulkner Society's Gold Medal for the Essay, the Florida Review Editors’ Prize in nonfiction, the Mslexia women’s poetry prize, and the 49th Parallel Poetry Prize from The Bellingham Review as well as residencies in from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. Her poems have recently appeared in Blackbird, North Dakota Quarterly, Southword, Unsplendid, and Clash By Night: A London Calling Anthology (City Lit, 2015). Satterfield is literary editor for Canada’s Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement and currently lives in Baltimore.