I was never a poison, but a potion. A portal to the darkness that snow-white humans are so eager to deny.

The queen reached her own dark side through a Saussurian mirror of signifier and signified—the shiny glass signifying beauty and brilliance, the dark metal absorbing the signified envy. The apple, a gateway to a world beyond the toxic dualities of bright/dark, good/evil, life/death, through the labyrinth of unconscious signifying, into the world as it is.

I’d have stayed lodged in the human’s mouth for longer, feeding her the Earth’s true language, protecting her from the lies of signification as she made her journey into the silent unknown.

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