Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet No. 23 by Gavin J. Grant Kelly Link

Author:Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: zine, Science Fiction, Short Fiction, LCRW, fantasy
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Published: 2010-08-17T17:21:22.277396+00:00

Three Poems

Kim Parko

Shiny Hair

One was always treated better than the other because of her thick, shiny hair, but that is not to say she was treated well. She was whipped. She was chained. She was berated. But her hair was lovingly cared for. The other was scalded and prodded and her limp hair was shorn. When they became teenagers, they developed suspicions. Maybe this wasn't a normal life. In their school, the others were unmarked; their flawless skin stretched tautly around their well-proportioned skeletons. The one with the thick, shiny hair was chosen to be admired, while the shaved one was picked to be scorned. This created a rift between them that a shared bedroom could not bridge. As adults, they were let loose and could do as they pleased. When it came time for their deathbeds, how different each scene. The shorn one breathed her last from a rickety cot as an apathetic nurse looked on, while the one with thick, shiny hair gasped her final from under an elaborate canopy circled by grieving generations.

Schoolgirl

She eats her breakfast like a good schoolgirl. She daydreams that she is drinking a glass of milk for her bones, and that her bones are weeping for dead calves. She daydreams that she is tasting bacon while a soft pig tongue licks the slaughter of its body.

During class, she has many desires: she wants to suck the knobs of her chest inward, away from probing boy-eyes; she wants to question authority but she looks like a pastel hooker; she wants to console Diana, who blames herself for misery amongst animals.

It is time for lunch. The bell rings and the schoolchildren line up at the trough. Today you will consume the rendering of animals, the woman in the hairnet mouths without joy. Her own daughter's breasts have been cut off, but she spoons out the mash just the same.

Sailor

A wayward sailor comes to the family's doorstep ensconced in seaweed. Mother parts his salty tendrils to expose a weathered, but not all that old, face. The life of a seaman is a principled life, especially the life of the seaman without ship. Why did this sailor decide to trade in the fathoms for the family's waning hearth? The children gather round the sailor. They giggle at his eel. stay, sailor, stay. They injure themselves on his stingray. go, sailor, go away. The fire is having its last crackle. Sailor speaks after regurgitating brine. His voice was meant for water's acoustics. Father cups his ruptured ears. This will not do. He mouths to his deafened family. This will not do.

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