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Sestina of the King and Queen
In my daughters drawing
of an angry queen
the tears are solid
pickle-shapes I could cut
with blunt scissors
and glue on my own face.
Her blossom face is
close above the drawing
her hair falls like scissors
on the unlucky queen
as slowly she cuts
away everything solid.
She trails her solid
finger around the paper face
until crying out, shes cut
the beaded blood drawing
out like the lip of a queen
like the red scissors.
The cruel scissors
and everything thats solid
answer to the queen
before whose face
bows are aimed and drawn
and hearts are cut.
I bandage her tender cut
We banish the scissors
into a dungeon drawing
with lines black and solid.
She raises up her face
Are you the queen?
If I were the queen
the kings lips would not cut
my liquid face
My crazy scissors
would remain solid,
hidden in their drawer.
Tomorrow I will take my scissors
and make my tears clean and solid
as I wait for the queen to say its time to draw. |
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Helen W. Mallon received her MFA degree in fiction writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2005 and is currently working on a novel. Her poetry chapbook, from Finishing Line Press, is titled Bone China.
Her poems, essays and fiction have appeared in many publications, including Commonwealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania from Penn State U. Press. Her story, Astral Projection is included in the Best of Philadelphia Stories Anthology 2007. |
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Date of Publication: 25 Feb 2008 |
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