Granddaughters of Red Riding Hood – April Ekphrastic Challenge

Jane Cornwell

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We granddaughters of red riding hood
Brought up with the cautionary tale
Have the dangers of dark woods understood

Know everything the world thinks women should
Do to avoid predatory males
As granddaughters of red riding hood

Know there’s sometimes cruelty in manhood
Know that nice personas can evil veil
We have the dangers of dark places understood

Know that getting caught by one would
Lead others to our precautions assail
As granddaughters of red riding hood

We know that one sad fact of womanhood
Most abuser will never face jail
We have the dangers of dark minds understood

Know we’ll live asking if we’ve done all we could
Knowing the price we’ll pay if we fail
We granddaughters of red riding hood
Have the dangers of walking the dark understood

©RedCat

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Photo by Alue Carrizo on Unsplash

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I’ve got such reactions to We just want to get home – Dedicated to Sarah Everard.
Both when I read it live and afterwards. Some comments especially have made my heart ache with the knowledge that way too many women have been assaulted. Will be assaulted sometime in their lives. Click on the link to read it, or hear me read it on dVerse Open Link Live.

This one is a sort of continuation or maybe a companion piece. Because as the abuse seems never ending, so too is the struggle to do something about it.  

Written in the Villanelle form. But don’t bother to count the syllables, because I’ve kept no strict meter. And have allowed the repeating lines to change slightly through the poem. Choosing substance over form.

For all art and all poems go to The Wombwell Rainbow.

Jane Cornwell


likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.

She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of Scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.

Her website is: https://www.janecornwell.co.uk/

April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021

• 1 April – Dark Orchid
• 2 April – A Dirge for the Drowned
• 3 April – Granddaughters of Red Riding Hood
• 4 April – Raven Dream Flight
• 5 April – It’s Spring Time Again and The Sweetest Wine – A Quadrille
• 6 April – There Once Was A Cat and To All The Good Girls
• 7 April – Mind Finds Soul Fearlessly Shines
• 8 April – Trapped, Imprisoned In Her Own Mind – A Triple Triolet and Ode To My Dream Girl
• 9 April – The Aurora Butterfly – A Sonnet
• 10 April – The Dawn Sky Is Ethereal Blue – A Triolet
• 11 April – Blue Forest Of Remembrance
• 12 April – Incantation to Bau-Gula – A Sonnet
• 13 April – The Stars Are Out Tonight – A Villanelle and Cat Searching High and Low
• 14 April – Shadow People Before My Eyes – A Triple Triolet
• 15 April – Three Times Three Times Three
• 16 April – Autumn feast – A Sonnet
• 17 April – In The Badger Sett
• 18 April – Hellcat
• 19 April – Life Lessons and No Bother! – A Quadrille
• 20 April – Fairy Dust Magic – A Trio Of Ovillejo’s and Crows Calling At Night
• 21 April – Polished Mirror Women – Dedicated to Marisol
• 22 April – Word Salad and A Beltane Song
• 23 April – Floating Around Everywhere and Oh Bother! – A Quadrille in Ovillejo Form
• 24 April – A Thousand Paper Cranes
• 25 April – Change and Restless Body and Mind
• 26 April – Through Hell
• 27 April – Weaving Web and Another Piece Of The Puzzel – A Puente Poem
• 28 April – Sounds In The Wind – A Puente Poem
• 29 April – Fire That Burns Away All Fears – A Sonnet and Blackbirds Dusk Sings
• 30 April – Star Prayer – A Sonnet