1. The Wood
Her mother warns her thrice to stay the Path.
The Wood is dark, the trees alive with beasts.
Amid the snow her cape's a bloody gash.
She bends to pick the flowers. What will feast
On little girl? She wonders. Dragon? Witch?
The Wolf that comes is black as snow is white.
A tree gives birth to him as grave a lich.
His teeth and eyes alone emit a light.
She does not wonder that they share a tongue.
She knows that after all she's wild, too.
She tells him where she's bound, for though she's young
She's horribly polite and always true.
In truth she hopes to see him at the house.
Her grandma's dull and pale, a paper mouse.
2. The House
When she arrives, she sees right through the mask,
His eyes and teeth too large and bright to hide.
She climbs in bed beside him as she's asked.
He pants and throbs, an engine; warm his hide,
And wet his throat. She thinks how it will be
To tumble 'tween those teeth. A yearning sigh.
But when he opens wide his jaws, she sees
Another way. A liar soon can lie
Abed and that is all, so stuffed with rocks
He cannot move. And so politely asks
she for the Woodsman's axe when door he knocks,
He gives before he thinks to ask her task.
Her hands are steady, her swing completely true.
She knows that after all she's wild, too.
1/1/2015, 1/2/2015
Jim Genzano
