The Witch Has Told You a Story by Ava Leavell Haymon

 

I featured Ava Leavell Haymon's work on the blog back in October--read it to learn more about her and her fairy tale related poetry--but I didn't want to leave her out of this month's poetry feature which is almost done. But since I have featured here here before, I will post two poems today because I feel that spunky and the month is almost done! What am I going to do for May?

This is copyrighed so don't copy and paste, please.

Here's the poem:

The Witch Has Told You a Story
by Ava Leavell Haymon

You are food.
You are here for me
to eat. Fatten up,
and I will like you better.Your brother will be first,
you must wait your turn.
Feed him yourself, you will
learn to do it. You will take him

eggs with yellow sauce, muffins
torn apart and leaking butter, fried meats
late in the morning, and always sweets
in a sticky parade from the kitchen.

His vigilance, an ice pick of hunger
pricking his insides, will melt
in the unctuous cream fillings.
He will forget. He will thank you

for it. His little finger stuck every day
through cracks in the bars
will grow sleek and round,
his hollow face swell

like the moon. He will stop dreaming
about fear in the woods without food.
He will lean toward the maw
of the oven as it opens
every afternoon, sighing
better and better smells.