truth bomb
listen I grew up
in a suburb
where each street was named
for a fairy tale
in the land of dark forests and
grimm siblings
and in my mother tongue
which brought you
rapunzel and rumpelstiltskin
no story ends
in a twee happily
ever after
it’s all much more conditional and ominous
our endings don’t mention happiness
instead our folk tales sign off this way:
and if they managed not to die
they’re still knocking about
somewhere to this day
Laura Theis‘ debut ‘how to extricate yourself’ was the winner of the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize, an Oxford Poetry Library Book of the Month, and nominated for an Elgin Award. Her work appears in POETRY (forthcoming), Mslexia, Rattle, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Aesthetica etc. Find her on her website.