Or, Where the Hell Was Little Red Riding Hood’s Mother?
Riv, skiv, place the shiv,
In the place where no one can take it and live.
Fly, sigh, keyboard fingers cry,
And thundercloud the purple sky.
Heavens cup and curve my world,
I smell the fresh scent—unscathed girl.
She flies her hair against my face,
Cattail brown, she has won the race.
Childish cheek, cool, soothes my own
Graces my eye.
I see her heartbeat ply tender flesh at pretty throat.
My own constricts, and my heart stings
Swelling, aching, guardian thing.
Marvel: the peach fuzz texture of her skin
Could I have been the cauldron
Did I chrysalis her within?
Crisp ginger crackle of autumn leaves
—a skrill of laughter informs the trees.
I have watched her maiden madcap dance
She is fresh and I fade fast; I would give all my future to spare her my past.
Rune my spells, cast my bones
Burn my own innards to light her way home.
I glad engage the wolf behind the tree
To spare her skunk-rank fur
Rot-breath’d company.
Let her never catch his eye
nor feel the sinking belly—Wry, his grin
Dauntingly wiry his ribcage—Thin
And predacious, he is gladacious of evil
and lusting for pain, and sucking of softness, and spoiling of trust.
Blithe, heedless, she sings loud in the forest
Her voice ringing clear, she never hears
The padfootfall.
Playing, pausing, enjoying the sun’s rays as it falls
She hurries not.
Eats with her eyes the candy-colored sky.
Innocent of jeopardy, and ill-prepared
Her cloak is thin, her throat is bared.
Slinking, silent, watchful, near, ever closer
His slitted lids peer.
So, call to him I do, and dance to him I will
Grizzled gray muzzle inclines towards my scent:
“Leave her, take me, I am much more your mate–
I trill to your resonance, I match you in hate.”
I falsely embrace you—Heavy-lidded, I wait.
My arms and breasts ripe, I seduce you from her
And when my legs, strong, brown, encircle your pipes—
Well, buffet and struggle and bite as you might,
I will cling with the strength of tornado-at-night.
The predator’s power then crumbles as dust.
Losing air, lupine stare confronts feline grin
Sin submits to sin
Canine vision becomes stained as with rust.
Lioness triumphs
As knowledge sets in
That the foul game is over.
He pays for his lust.
Never mind that my own world I forfeit in kind—
She’ll live safe, bear sweet girls
This the sole favor I beg now of Time.
Red-painted, heart-fainted
Broken, unbowed
I rest on forest mast.
Clean black soil, aged leaves wear
Pigments imbrued with remnants of this night.
Turn my head, verify—He is dead.
Wolf carcass weeps upon absorbent earth.
My thready pulse leaps—
Comet cousins course across my eyes.
I know, with no fear, that I will die.
Line my grave with his hide. 9/27/00