Christine Coleman
Goldilocks
After that startled awakening and chase through the woods
bears lumbered almost nightly
into her dreams
but by the time she married, she couldn’t remember
why even the smell of porridge
could scald her tongue.
She has a baby now, and her broken sleep is invaded
by bears again — their coarse dark fur
smelling of resin and fungus.
Sometimes she wakes with honey in her throat
hands as cumbersome as boxing gloves
flat white nails thickened to ebony.
When she slides from the bed
it seems natural as breathing
to pad across the carpet on all fours.
Grey light seeps through loosely woven
nurse-y rhymes. She unravels undertones of
talcum powder, sweat-damp hair
and hints of her own on sleeping breath.
Her baby. Is he hers? He seems so
separate
folded in on his unblemished self
as though he’s tumbled through a crack in time
and she can’t touch him.
Page(s) 47
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