Beauty and the BEAST

Beauty and the BEAST

Beauty and the Beast
by Jaimes Alsop


1. The Beast

Knowing how you loved the birds
I fixed them to the trees
so they wouldn't fly away.
So you would stay.
And you remained silent
and never questioned my bloody palms
or reproached me the birds
because they didn't sing.
It couldn't last, of course.

No new birds came and those crucified
were taken by small animals or simply
disappeared from the nails.
I was sure then that you would leave me.

Finally I confessed.
Trembling, I brought you the hammer
and showed my broken fingers.
Leaves and branches in my hair,
the diagrams of Autumn
on the sky.

And you smiled and said it didn't matter
about the birds
and drank at my tears
like a rare and fragile wine
that they too would not be wasted.