Over the Hill and through the Woods (Attys)

The Poor Girl's Guide to Becoming a Princess

listen
to the murmuring
of servants

gossip flutters
a bird adrift
on wayward winds

princesses —
beaten, cast out
for lacking proper fragility

rich gowns
made of heavy textiles
are easily stolen

wait
for a tempest
thunder, lightening, torrents

dripping, wet
a trickling mess
in stolen clothes

Help! I am
a princess, a real
princess lost!

Well!
says the Queen
We'll see about that!

a ladder leans
against a tower of mattresses
a monolith of feather beds

beneath copious
layers of satin, silk, damask
a single pea

alone in the dark
strike skin with a tea spoon
until it blooms blue

sleep sound,
dreaming of delicacies,
upon a bed of clouds

morning wakes
a refrain of sparrow calls
in the yellow light

at breakfast, say
Oh! How horrid
I've slept!

What a boulder
there must have been
beneath the sheets!

present forearms
pocked with black bruises
as evidence

trumpets! fanfaire!
a wedding feast
a princely kiss

smile
a secret
smile

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