Lost and Slaughtered Sisters
The cruel stepmother, the Beast,
I read of them, and other grimmer tales
but, said mother, some are too nasty,
just don’t bother with those.
That last one, the Bloody Chamber
or the Forbidden Room, I shouldn’t read
that one. So then, of course, I was drawn to it,
turned time after time to the last in the book.
My lost and slaughtered sisters,
hung up like sides of beef,
heads on the sill, crowned with flowers.
Nothing could ever put those things right.
What else could I do but lock the doors
and set the whole house ablaze?
Edward Vanderpump has had poems published in The Rialto and Smiths Knoll. He has published a collection of his poems, Momentary Stars (Clydesdale Jefferson 2016). He taught EFL in UK, Germany, Spain and Italy and also worked in publishing and archives.