Snow White’s Stepmother Talks to Her Reflection in the Mirror
Snow White’s Stepmother Talks to Her Reflection in the Mirror
by Emery Jelinek
If you can’t have it
put it in crystal.
Stuff a lump in her neck.
Fix her in ice.
Write her name on a box
and filigree the bastard.
Let gold dusk lick her face
and leave its powder of grey.
Greet the girl with a kick
so her throat jumps.
Maybe this time, lucky lady
when she wakes up
she’ll love you.
Ahh. I think the main body of the poem was ‘set up’ ideally with the title. Some may say such a title may ‘give away’ too much or might be too wordy but sometimes readers only have so much patience with ‘the poem as riddle’. That’s an especially keen ending that hits the nail on the head: “Maybe this time, lucky lady when she wakes up she’ll love you.”–the need for love and the failure to get it can twist us into something dark and foreboding. Thanks for sharing!