The Women’s Frescoes in the Palazzo Chiaramonte

Ray Ball

today I looked at graffiti
rendered from vegetable oils
and menstrual blood
daubed onto the walls
of a prison                                                                               to create
images to mark
their presence                                                                         historically
many women
have always had
access to kitchens
and to blood
even when incarcerated
by inquisitors
determined and yet failing                                                      to eradicate
blasphemy and sorcery
and heretical suppositions
does she float
the caricature of a woman
sits somehow serenely
layered on the paint
that covered another
canvas of graffiti
underneath her
sails a vessel,
the work of earlier prisoners
is a ship abandoned
when it’s covered                                                                    with whitewash
if only it could have
carried her from that
dark place
if only she could have been propelled
by her own
tugging flow

© 2019 Ray Ball

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Ray Ball grew up in a house full of snakes. She is a history professor, writer, and editor at Alaska Women Speak. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Ray’s chapbook Tithe of Salt was published by Louisiana Literature Press in spring 2019. She can be found on Twitter @ProfessorBall.