You never even asked my name

Hello lovelies! This may be the quickest I have finished an illustration as I did it in one day. I wanted a simple, bold design so the message would stand out.

I gave a clue in my last post about this story. It starts with a lie. A lie that his daughter can spin straw into gold. Some stories say he lies because his daughter is lazy and he hopes the boast will make her more industrious.  But mainly he lies because he is greedy. He puts her life in jeopardy with no regard for her feelings or wellbeing because she is his property and he can say and do what he likes. The tale is, of course, Rumpelstiltskin.

My poem Rumple in my upcoming book Wounds: New Openings Into Old Stories concerns sex trafficking and the myth of virgin cleansing .If you have never heard of virgin cleansing it is the belief that if you have sex with a virgin you will be healed from sexually transmitted diseases.  This myth was popularised in the Victorian era as a cure for syphilis,  but is still practiced in parts of the world today as a cure for AIDS.

My poem is about a child who is forced into prostitution by her father who lies about her ability to cure disease.

As I was sewing this, I was listening to the powerful song by Ballydowse called Sons and Daughters.