Ivana Sajko

ARCHETYPE: MEDEA

The monologue for a woman that sometimes speaks

(2000)

It is hard for me to speak as a woman.

I could be a woman as people are schizophrenics,

Hiding the uterus in a big man's clenched fist.

My lover had a smooth chin and hard belly,

Large hands and large sentences.

I could only be tied down,

Never calmed down, never settled down, never at rest,

Only momentarily happy because of the ruthlessness

He had tamed me with.

The man is strong,

The man knows how to tie a knot,

The man knows how to hammer a nail.

Being weak and fragile

Was my sense of beauty.

If I knew I could burn all the way down to the ashes,

and be sure they would replace me with sand or dust,

I would throw myself into the fire.

But who would build a pyre for this huge body?

Who would cast the stone? Who?

As if sin is a disease and they are afraid to come near me,

as if I am tattooed:

with that cursed name written all over me.