What Mulan Said To Elaine

Girl at the window, tell me
What is in your heart?
Your shutter has gone quiet,
But your sighs are loud.

You should not be idle, girl, your hands are young and deft.
You should not be heartsore, girl, not for any man.

Girl at the casement, how you
Hold yourself apart!
No homely thing can touch you --
Girl, your wound is proud.

Turn your time to profit, girl, addressing warp and weft.
There's your proper business, girl; attend to what you can.

Or come to France with me and
Study there the art
Of Bonny Jeanne who left us
Billowed on a cloud.

(The House Without the Door)

I'll spatter you with acid.

In my hands
You'll study how to make the death's-head grin.
Your bones will smoke and smolder, peeping steam
Between the patches of your living skin.
I'll hear you scream.

But that won't be sufficient.

I'll get help
Let sister Famine teach you how to groan.
You'll gorge and crave, till, famished, platters bare,
You'll gnaw your hands and feet down to the bone,
No morsel spared.

I've other sisters also.

With their aid
I'll lock you in a nightmare pricked with wrong,
With whirling, windy voices, frozen fells
And black crevasses, and the cold that longs
For cozy hell.

You think I have no power.
But I do.
You think you've stolen all my pith and marrow
And every form of strength and will I had.
But I still have my sisters.
They will catch you.
My sisters, they will catch you, and you'll pay.

(Spring Scene)

See the river, splashed with sun,
Clear on pebbles, clear on sand.
See the pansies prank the slope,
Purple spattering the green.

How could you think it would alter?
How could you think it would stay?
This place is too big to be shattered.
This place is too small to sustain.

The Same as Always

That's everything.
It's done.
You've nothing left
Except this hole,
This ragged piece of blank.

Girl, you're fortunate.
I've seen them rot
And trickle through the tissues,
Through the veins,

A hideous distillment,
Leaching death.

But not for you.
Right now, for you,
This granulating wound
This healing skin.

Banishing Chant

Pig-lady, pig-lady,
Go hide in the woods.
We don't want to see you,
Not here on the path.

We don't want to look at
Your lady-half-face.
We don't want to look at
Your cloven-hog-head.

Pig-lady, pig-lady,
With long maenad hair,
We won't have you near us,
We won't have you here.

We don't want to know you.
Stay deep in the woods.
Don't force us to face you;
Don't force us to see --

One side sweetly scented,
The other side rank.
One side slender wand-limbs,
The other side hooves.

Pig-lady, pig-lady,
With long, tangled hair,
We won't have you by us.
We won't have you here.

We can't bear to touch you;
Don't force us to feel
Your cold lady-flesh and
Hot, stinking sow's skin.

Don't force us to breathe where
You also draw breath
Don't force us to step where
You've printed the sod.

Pig-lady, pig-lady
Just keep to the woods.
Stay crouched in a thicket
And try not to be.

Ariadne

Limbs as pale as foam upon the strand --
I guess she must have whipped her slender arms
And kicked her tapered ankles till they snapped.
How else could she begin to rid herself
Of all that screaming fury, lye-harsh grief?
But honey, after all, you're just a girl
And this is just another stand-up show.

FYI

Render me a lantern made of straw
Peel from me each inch of living skin
Stuffing it with prickled yellow stalks
Then kindle me
And watch me writhe and crackle, stiffen, flare
Just so you know:
That's how you butcher a woman;
That's how you drop into hell.