Animal Bride

she that was was beautiful
her name forgot but not
the long shining hair
she was always combing, combing

and I am now and not
so beautiful but when
I felt that first soft press
of lips against my shoulder
realized what it meant

Index:

Blooming/Dying

Transformed

La Belle Dame

The Red Shoes

Animal Bride

Remembrance

Seedling/Growing

False

Girl Wandering

Paper Moon

The Last Voice Before the Silence

Begin Again

then I was her, she me, the loveliest youngest daughter
turning every suitor away because I could afford to
wait for you the strongest, handsomest, bravest and you
carried me away (I was carried away); but no happy
ever after for this story, no,
not for her nor for me either--

for of a sudden something
shifted from her eyes and
the glamour fell
she saw the claws and teeth

your words incomprehensible
as growls or a hawk's scream
I confused illusion broken
I run--

but there's no going back to vanity nor innocence
once broken, those illusions never glued together
quite the same so I lost my hands (her fingers cut
from the kayak by her own father, flesh and blood)
and fell down, down
into the cold blue--

tangled into Sedna's hair the pieces of me lost
to feed the world, my tossings and turnings
to shape the world with waves and waves of blue.