DRAW YOUR ARROW
When you went to your aunt’s wake
you asked if her body was really in the coffin
or if they placed it in there before burial. Some surgeons
advise against mastectomy and urge their patients
to elect breast conservation surgery, but the Amazon
warriors cut off their right breasts to facilitate combat
with a bow and arrow. Their military defenses
didn’t prevent Theseus from abducting Queen Hippolyta
and forcing her into marriage. The Amazon Princess,
Wonder Woman, appears to have both breasts
intact in that red bustier. My aunt was trapped
in a bad marriage and lost one breast
before she died. She never learned how
to hold a bow or draw an arrow. The last time
I saw her, I couldn’t tell which breast was missing
beneath her loose, red blouse.
THE GLASS SLIPPER
GirlsGirlsGirls winks the neon light
over The Glass Slipper.
It’s gone to seed since Uncle Walt died.
The wolf works the door
(it’s always a wolf or a prince
who can tell the difference in this town?).
Grimm girls of Disneyfornication
fairy princess impersonators
on display LIVE, take a peek:
Special guest appearance by L’il Red from the hood.
Rapunzel lets her hair down.
Snow White unlaces her corset.
Cinderella dances on glass.
This is where the runaways end up
playing (un)dress up
looking for King Midas or Prince Charming
or Mr. Goodenough to settle down for.
At last call
they marry, move on, move away.
Or they’re sent back to the studio
to be redrawn.
Deborah Hauser is the author of Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders (Finishing Line Press, 2011). She graduated from Stony Brook University with a Masters in English Literature. She has taught at Stony Brook University and Suffolk County Community College. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies, including Wallace Stevens Journal, DASH, and Antiphon. She is a contributing editor at The Found Poetry Review. She leads a double life on Long Island where she works in the insurance industry when she isn’t writing poetry.
823 on High 