Gretel Grown Up
Not long after the incident with the witch,
Gretel’s therapist made her stand in a corner
with a chair on her back. He was trying
to convince Gretel that she need no longer bear
the burden of her escape.
Killing the witch had somehow cost her
that which she most valued:
Unable to live in her shadow,
Hansel had run away, been gone for years.
Gretel could not fathom how this one thing
could come between them.
Yet it was there, all the time,
especially in the night,
when the least little noise—
owls in the trees, raccoons
in the garbage—sounded
like the witch’s cry as it faded
into that miracle of flame.
No trick with a chair
could change the one truth of her life:
Wounds that bear no scar do not heal.
**
Zombie Girl and the City
After Jessie Carty
2 am. Zombie Girl walks
through the city alone.
The skinny girls are climbing into limos,
ready to trade a line for a blow.
They give Zombie Girl a glance,
then grimace and turn away.
She knows—no matter what they say
those skinny bitches—
that they don’t understand
the heart of the city.
She alone appreciates its
subtle whispers and ineffable sirens,
hears the small echoes of loneliness
that betray the city’s heartache,
perceives its sleights of hand and affectations
amid the performance artists in Central Park.
In return for her close attention,
the city comforts her
with its textures and aromas,
reveals its secrets to her
in an alley behind a bodega.
Zombie Girl knows she will never be
beautiful, but the city loves her anyway.
The city has asked for her hand.
The dancing mime in the silver tutu
will perform the ceremony.
The skinny bitches will not be invited.
**
Poem for Trayvon Martin
You are sleeping with the angels
and now every Black mother in America
fears for her son. Evil persists,
and with him Vengeance and Despair.
His one-eyed half-brother Misjudgment
shot you dead in the street as you walked home
from the convenience store.
What was it your teacher said? That you
manifested happiness.
The hip hop mogul wrote today that
in a dark alley, I am the reason ladies clutch their purse.
What he said was not wrong, but it is only one
of many patterns that led to your death.
Now you are beyond harm,
but the cause of your death
continues to injure and imperil,
and so we retreat to our own,
lift our separate hymns,
and pray another King will rise to save us.
