I don’t normally do the poem thing, because I’m …okay, a big loser, yes, but mostly it’s ’cause I’m busy on Fridays trying to wrack my brain to come up with a short story for Flickr Fiction Friday. Today, however, is the Friday for which I have waited! Last weekend at the conference, I had the chance to hear Our Jane read one of her fabulous poems, and I’m excited to have it here to share with you!
Once Upon
by Jane Yolen © 2007
Once Upon A Time
there was a Wolf,
but not a Wolf,
an Other
whose mother
and father were others,
who looked not like us,
Republican or Dem
in other words–
Them.
They were forest dwellers,
child sellers,
meat eaters,
wife beaters,
idol makers
oath breakers —
in other words, Wolf.
So Happy Ever After means
we kill the Wolf,
spill his blood,
knock him out,
bury him in mud,
make him dance
in red hot shoes.
For us to win
The Wolf must lose.
I adore this poem (and the fact that I was four rows back from the Poet I she read still makes me all swoony). It makes me so full… and I want to say about it something brilliant and worthy, but I’m still struck speechless. It gives me so many thoughts that I’m not able to work the scalpel of my MFA and pith it to bits. Maybe next week. Suffice it to say that it is making me rethink every fairytale and fantasy story I’ve ever read, to try to tease out their hidden meanings. I love this kind of stuff, and thanks to whomever started the Poetry Friday thing to give us all a chance to share what we love.
