Barbara Bentley
I Killed Mother Goose
So dark backstage, but I found Mother Goose
nailed to the dressing room door. I crept in
and sure enough, there was her costume
hanging like a sheared fleece.
Dropped on the floor, tights in custard yellow
still moulded to the shape of ample hips,
flippers for webbed feet, and hinged
wedges of cardboard daubed with acrylic
for a stupid pantomime beak.
It was her alright. Mother Goose.
I'd seen her waddle down the road,
top-heavy with gossip, flapping and clucking,
harmless enough. But beneath that fluff
she could be vicious as a bird that lunges
for bread from empty hands. She could chase
and hiss and arch her neck, a hook
of flexed white muscle. My own mum
snapped and pecked like that,
a relentless nagging goose. So I took my knife
and went for the voice. Do this. Do that.
Don't do as I do. Do as I say. Feathers gusted
when I slit the padded throat, and out came
a stream of gobbledegook: Polly killed
Cock Robin. Put the kettle on, cock. Who killed.
Who killed. The hanger clattered. The body slumped.
Freed at last from mother's script, I dusted the lint
from my clogged-up boots, tiptoed out, and ran for it.
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