Not A Child In Sight
A stitch past nine on borrowed time
memories rushing back
The Wolf is feasting in Grandma’s bed
Red Riding Hood a snack
A Cow gets ready to jump again
but the moon drops from the sky
Humpty Dumpty on the floor
Tweedle-dum starts to cry
A candle burns for Jack’s last jump
his waiting funeral pyre
The Stepmother screams, Cinderella hides
her daughter’s dress on fire
Little Jack Horner abandons his corner
curds harden and whey runs aground
With Mother Goose fleeing — the Grimm Brothers die
not a child in sight to be found
(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)
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Abstract literary/philosophical destruction of childhood narratives and innocence
Dense rapid-fire nursery rhyme references compressed into short lines
Darkly dystopian corruption of beloved children's stories, ominous tone throughout
Explosive cascade of fragmented images, urgent pacing, violent disruptions
16 lines with date notation; falls in 16-30 range
Heavy use of literary allusions, metaphoric collapse of innocence, symbolic carnage
Omniscient narrator observing multiple characters/stories simultaneously, some dramatic distance
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