body work

xiii: in which the wolf stargazes with red riding hood (333)

**tw's: blood, abuse implied**

mother told girl to stay on the right path / but mother was wrong, in more ways than one / mother made girl wear red for all to see / so they could catch girl if she dared flee / mother told the town to keep girl close / not for fear of losing her, no / but for wanting girl to stay at home.

one day the path to home was blocked / betwixt girl & mother stood a grey rock / there was another way, that much girl knew / a path that led her through trees laced with dew / it was getting dark but girl never scared / mother's temperament had made her prepared.

down she walks, right into the woods / until she meets a charming wolf / he inquires about her basket of bread / girl says it is a gift for mother / to apologise for both being enough & not / another & wolf cannot imagine how hard that must be / he invites girl to sit on the / moss & says please tell me.

so girl opens her mouth to speak / at first nothing, then a voice that's weak / tells a tale so long & cold / that wolf surrounds girl & holds her close / how mother demanded a thousand years / in less than a childhood you see / girl gave all she could / but she herself had yet to bleed / wolf nods, i understand, he says. i too know what it's liked to be wished dead.

& then girl cries for what she cannot have / & wolf tells her to not lament her past / but girl cries & cries & rages & weeps / until there's no more & then falls asleep / wolf stays up all night / howling & thinking it a noble sacrifice / he wasn't to know girl / was the ram, the kid & the daughter / & also the knife blessed for slaughter.

& that girl would slay him too / for there must be no witnesses to the blood seeping out / no-one to say a final prayer as it drips on the ground / because to girl is to already be too much, too much / of the time / & all wolves think they know that & it is alright.

girl awakes & they eat, though the bread is stale / wolf hungers for more but notices girl is pale / she sits & she stares at her hands all day / sometimes clasping them together to enjoy their shape / & she remembers that is how to begin to pray / she is desperate for god to call her name / at night

wolf thinks he is god & looks to the moon / girl wants nothing more to fly there & fall back down / but when she thinks like that she gets worse / really girl wants wolf to hate the red of her gown.

wolf wonders why girl willingly walks to slaughter / girl blinks & says that what it means to daughter / anyway, says girl / why is to wolf is to snarl at the blade? / & wolf says why, that's what it means to die brave &

girl remembers mother will find her soon / wolf says come with me to live in these woods / see how we can learn from each other / to forget both the hunter & the mother / & girl says they are both the same & / anyway how can one avoid their fate?

wolf points to a pail by a small house / & then at the sky / we are all one or the other / always collecting dust & collapsing in on ourselves & / this is how galaxies are born, & then die / over billions of years & throughout the whole damn sky / a lifespan in the colour of a bruise / first blue, then purple, then darker hues.

girl grins & then howls at the moon / mother was right, of course / nobody loves you like this. to be the worst of your kind, / dry dirt, not only helpless
but close to the / grave, ghastly & gross.

to be begging for water / whilst releasing your own spit, / is to know that the / first name you were given
was daughter, & everything after took limb after limb—

no wonder girlhood is curbed / into the flowers & their scents / all the citronella & magnolia / posed as sweet innocence / really it is sharp blades & bright welts. it is / breaking the butcher's knife to use teeth to tear flesh—

see how the lips are already cherry-red? / to allow the blood to blend in with the rest / & then wolf forgets that girl is a friend / instinct kicks in & he snaps at her throat / with saliva dripping down / girl calmly offers up her coat / red shreds of ribbon lie at their feet / & then girl feels it between her legs / the bleed.

girl learns how to hunt & what to grow / knowing what to skin & what to let go / wolf is impressed at how quickly she belongs / of course, girl knew how to do this all along

& wolf, he learns how to comply / lets one magpie live & the other die / after all, it is one for sorrow, two for joy / & wolf knows he becomes like mother / having to make such a choice.

girl daydreams that the moon is her hearse / wolf lets her know that it was his first / girl reminds wolf of the blood she collects / staining her thighs, bold markings of regret / wolf points to the sky & says / the whole of it is mine & you are just my guest.

they laugh / until the corner of their lips start collecting dust / & their eyes start weeping & their ribs really hurt.