Category: Rewriting a fairy tale myth or legend
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Selfie at the OK corral
I feel sorry for the cow twisted by its head to ground to entertain the masses. It’s not my first rodeo, I worry the clowns might get hurt distracting a bull chasing its tormentor. Foghorn Leghorn playing Rooster Cogburn, strutting through the barnyard, Miss Prissy swooning in chicken shit. I ain’t no urban cowboy, lifts…
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Tiny tongues, or, the unnamed wife of Lot
Ancient editors playing God, left the unnamed wife of Lot looking back at friends As they were incinerated Her body magically turned to salt, PowerPoint lesson plan for cautionary sermons For disobedient wives I much prefer the Greek version where Orpheus accepts the blame When Eurydice is turned to salt If I were an ancient…
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Pinochio
My sisters and Jiminy Cricket taught me how to wish upon a star. Asian folklore says that a loud cricket means money, but it seems someone else always hears it first. My uncle said crickets make good bait and you don’t need to carry them through the woods when you’re sneaking on private land to…
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Joseph Campbell meets Mary Oliver’s ghost haiku
it does not matter where into the wild you flee your shadow finds you 8-19-23
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Change of narrative
Orion’s misogyny myth Chases seven Pleiades virgins across the sky Let’s decorate the heavens with new stories Seven fearless virgins turn and chase Orion across the sky Castration in his future If he stops to catch his breath 8-13-23
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Atalanta in spandex
What if Atalanta was born a male and her daddy didn’t leave her on a mountain to die What if she hated her father and didn’t need a man to feel empowered What if she wore Spandex to intimidate her suitors because her lady parts were bigger than tiny Greek penises on marble statues What…
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Alice of the psilocybes
ask rabbits where do sylvan citizens store long winter’s hibernation dreams they wiggle their ears and snort, beware of talking caterpillars and grinning cats reshuffle the deck drop out and fold drop in, again cut your luck and ask Alice, I think she’ll know 10-11-22
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21st century fairytale
After the kiss of COVID dried on her face mask Sleeping Beauty’s eye lids fluttered open She looked into the lecherous eyes of Prince Retail, Rolled over and went back to sleep 9-12-22
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Milly’s man
gilded glass gaol albeit a pretty jar djinn or jinn no one knows it does not matter if you believe in ancient myths of magical beings waiting to flee imprisonment adolescence delayed never fully grown 73 years is too long to wait to be a man 9-9-22
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haiku child revery
in an antique store you open the wardrobe door looking for Aslan 6-27-22
My husband's poetry 