Her dream grew
Too large
Imagination spilling
Filling her room
Needing out
Creeping upon its windowed reflection
In pane
Shelved dolls listening
Hearing the dream’s gasp
Unable to split the seam of weighted eyelids
Lashed
Their response stuck in frozen smiles
Pearly teeth clenched
Anchored in place
No way to alert
Escape
I held her tight Her weight in my lap boxed to let her go gently Water & wind ready to embrace her The sun falling halfway Our metal casket gleaming mid-flight I…
It started in dreams Wings giving way to tail Your scales growing in phases taking away more of you We wrapped your knees and ankles with ribbons first binding away your humanness…
fireplace smoke rising morning coffee brewing old men's cherried pipes and trees Do you miss the scents of earth? fresh-cut grass after rain? salty ocean breezes? pink camellias? or my skin?
To her children she was magic-- kneading flour and water into sticky loaves that rose on the window’s ledge, planting seeds that grew into plucked potatoes. Wrestling a chicken with one hand,…