Alexa Doran
“I don’t want you to says he’s a killer”
Oh honey I am angry too.
Hansel and Gretel felt this
same gravity when they finally
saw through the heady scent
of too much peppermint to the gnarl
of licorice and bone broth whose
steam left their bodies limp
as used hankies. Still Americans
had so much more warning
than two fairy tale children
banished to the open axle of forest.
I do not want to forgive
the President or teach you
your cheek is your best defense
against men who believe life
is better embezzled than spent.
Like most parents I Disney dye
my description: us v. the acid orange
villain, Trump the bad word, flung
like excrement but I won’t cover
the shit soak of his stained wild linen
won’t let it moisten into legend
instead I treat it like a socket like
the pivot in my slingshot
Alexa Doran’s collection DM Me, Mother Darling won the 2020 May Sarton Poetry Prize and will be published by Bauhan Publishing in April 2021. She’s also the author of the chapbook Nightsink, Faucet Me a Lullaby (Bottlecap Press 2019). For a full list of publications, awards, and interviews visit alexadoran.com