White
Helen Vitoria
(excerpted & rearranged from
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Anne Sexton)
1.
birds call out, open and shut
no matter what life you lead
dance the fire dance in iron shoes
something like the weather forecast—
2.
Open to say―
come to the seventh mountain
the snakes sleep in the wildwood
with a hungry wolf
each lay down a noose, at last
3.
his tongue lolling out
her sweet white neck
completely equipped
you must not
open the door
during the day
he will know you are here
4.
while we are away in the mines
across seven mountains
came a bit of lacing
as tight as her
bandage
5.
men carried the coffin
swooned and
opened the door
to bury her in the black ground
they washed her with wine
they bought snow
and fell down for the final time
6.
the virgin is a lovely number
sometimes referring to her mirror
she stumbled and dropped it
a beauty in her own right
white as a bonefish
with china-blue doll eyes
that open and shut
she danced until she was dead
as women do
HELEN VITORIA'S work can be found and is forthcoming in many online and print journals: elimae, MudLuscious Press, PANK, Rougarou, FRIGG Magazine, >kill author, decomP, Dark Sky Magazine and others. She is the author of six poetry chapbooks and a full length poetry collection, Corn Exchange, forthcoming from Scrambler Books, Spring 2012. Her poems have been nominated for Best New Poets & the Pushcart Prize. She is the Founding Editor & Editor in Chief of THRUSH Poetry Journal & THRUSH Press. Find her here: helenvitoria-lexis.blogspot.com.
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| Evelyn Hampton :: | Hi |
| Savior | |
| Start With Steak | |
| Helen Vitoria :: | White |
| Adam Stoves :: | Ballusional |
| Rose Hunter :: | [taxi] |
| Gary Every :: | Popes on Bicycles |
| Bethany Haug :: | Love in the Park |
| Danielle Lea Buchanan :: | Spawn |
| Lewis Gesner :: | Black Ball |
| David Tomaloff :: | Five Photographs |
| Danica Obradovic :: | The Shortest Ceremony |
| Syllabic Debacle | |
| Mark Walters :: | Caveboy 1 & 2 |
| Larissa Nash :: | The Star |
| Unreal | |
| Jenny McDougal :: | For the Monkey Astronauts of America in the 1950s |
| Adler Planetarium on a Weekend | |
| James Valvis :: | Poem Composed Entirely With Last Lines from James Dickey Poems 1 & 2 |
| T.J. O'Donnell :: | Morning Shift |
| Handmade in Alaska | |
| Emily Glossner Johnson :: | Vladimir Lenin Grown Weary |
| Meg Eden :: | An Old Man Sighted, Planting Poinsettias |
Homage to the Strange Spirits
| Kenneth Patchen :: | Picture Poems |