A whole village of little creatures lifting to Spring and speaking quietly together in the middle of Downtown Boise.

the Fairest of them all

The silent shards of her painted eyes were too bright by half, assuming she was to be

the Fairest of them all

Higgeldee, cried onion obituaries in the dwarf kitchen and roasted root vegetables,

For he could not break Chanticleer’s luminous ruby neck, a happy cockerel and by far

the Fairest of them all

Why do Innocents have such a weakness for apples? Waive it! Pitch a smooth-skinned

Ruby-painted fruit to them and see the whitest soul fall covetous, wondering: is that one

the Fairest of them all?

Pale skin works with Midnight Starlight Revlon Permanent Hair Color (shade 29),

With Marilyn’s Cherries in the Snow lipstick, if you like that sort of thing,

the Fairest of them all

Perfect toxicity uses pre-existing symptoms to induce death: 1 mm despair, 1 gram Grimm,

tincture of Doubt, Dread, Dry-eyed insomnia, Red Dye No. 2, whisk in UnBelief: as a potion

the Fairest of them all 

Why do none but I dance for the snow-white storm? My Quonset moon, my waiting wood,

The Au Claire de Lune dew and growl of thunder, moss between my toes, surely these are                          

The Fairest of them all

The Seventh Dwarf, wart-skin Rumpel, retired to villainy in the manner of Judas, so terribly

Scarred by merely standing in the crowd to watch the sacerdotal Prince come kissing

the Fairest of them all

That hooked nose and hairy Seborrheic mole itched, so often the problem with theatrical make-up.

I leaned in, measuring my aged, dirt pore, hard-life guise (minus fillers and Botox) against the other,

the Fairest of them all 

Even under heavy sedation I found my cut crystal sarcophagus absurd. Like the mercury behind her Mirror,

it refracts only sterile light. Listen now, I say me, “If a thing cannot rot, it will never be                 

the Fairest of them all.”

Contrary to Urban Legends, I didn’t enjoy kissing her scarlet and comatose lips.  A kiss should be urgent,

regress, ingress, egress. A pure and mutual exchange of chemical intention is rare, but there

 the Fairest of them all 

Ingesting ill will, un-wish, and nauseating projections of the Other Mother's cinematic Shadow,

One sinks under the Ides, sliding rip tides, slowed at the inky edge of time until nothingness seems

 the Fairest of them all

 A kiss is a call. Mouth to mouth and I remember all, the bonfires on Avas Hill, lace curtain breezes,

The scent of apricots, why water is like silk, flower fire, Palinka. I wonder now if tomorrow will be

 the Fairest of them all.