& sometimes I think
it would have been easier if
the princess had thrown
herself off the glass
mountain.
{It’s what I would have done}
What’s the use in waiting?
I’ll trade you a tower
for a cellar, thorns for
barbed wire.
A crystal coffin
for a refrigerator.
Does it surprise you that
girls are still locked away?
That the only thing changed
are the containers they’re kept in?
& would you believe
birdsongs in autumn
pierce deeper than
shirts made of nettles
and briars, that
frost turns nests
into cages of iron?
That I go through life
picking up toads
lips puckered;
an uncontrollable impulse
bred from the words—
Once upon a time…
a snake lies dead on the road
and I wonder
if it may have been a prince
whose spell wasn’t
broken.
& how did you feel
as you knelt by the roadside
the fox looking at you
with dead eyes, sides heaving?
When you cut off its head,
and all four of its paws
did you ever stop—
and think that
it may not have wanted
to turn back into a man?
Elizabeth Evenson-Dencklau
Elizabeth Evenson-Dencklau writes fiction and poetry. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and shares a one-bedroom apartment with four cats, all citizens of the Midwest. Her work has appeared in Menacing Hedge, The Monarch Review, Decades Review and The Metropolitan.
Artwork: Mandy Tsung, “Spirit Fox”
Website: http://choplogik.org/mandytsung/index.html
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