Barren the Fury

What would happen if, instead of entering a world in which they are never really considered human, girls made a choice to abandon us? A response to the hopelessness of being female, *Barren the Fury* turns salvation myths into destruction narratives, hopelessness into rage, acquiescence into violence. Structured much like a novel, the book follows a mother whose daughter makes this choice as she moves from seeking answers to seeking vengeance and as she bears society's and the earth's flooding, a flooding that no government can stop, despite brutal efforts. Beneath this chaos sing the offerings of the unborn, the answers to "why." Influenced by Margaret Atwood's *The Handmaid's Tale,* Marilyn Bowering's searing *Autobiography* and P.K. Page's *Planet Earth,* *Barren the Fury* ranges over topics like environmental destruction, child labour and menstruation suppression. Ultimately, the poems question our responses to underlying power structures - do we close the curtains and latch the door?