She Who Wrote

The first writer to sign her name to a poem is said to be Enheduanna, a Mesopotamian woman who wrote on a tablet, millennia before Mary’s son divided the clock into before and after.

She served Inanna, queen of heaven, who appears with her foot on the back of a lion she’s taking on a short-leashed walk.

Part of Inanna’s work is domestication. To civilize another creature as a mother would, showing the power of  her existence through a body that will outlive her.

Civilization is what makes childhood a captivity narrative.

Writing is a refusal that captivity is the end.