by Valerie Little
- “Thou who art my castle’s daylight…Judith, love me, ask no questions.” –Bela Balazs
- Judith holds the keys to seven doors
- before being lost to darkness:
- first blood, second armory,
- I am battle hungry for your violence
- the flinty smack of defeat
- a mouth full of wet pennies.
- Sew your sins into your skin
- assemble us from weapons you cast aside
- make a new play thing, new wife.
- she gets your grand gesture
- blonde girls always do.
- how long was it before you asked her to dye it dark like mine?
- third kingdom, fourth tears.
- I lived coltish beyond our borders before
- I buckled scarlet-heart scarred at your castle walls.
- we kissed on the bathroom floor
- unschooled on the lost art of goodbye
- sponging some extra seconds of flesh
- caressing Asmodeus’ salt into my graveyard wounds
- singing a glassed-in fish’s bubbling lament.
- fifth riches, sixth fauna,
- hang me by your ruby words,
- stardust touch and lavender breath.
- walk between the sun-splintered sugar maples
- with women who treasured you less than I
- instructing them to love you and ask no questions.
- I turn down our walk and skip town,
- slipping on the seventh, a chain around my neck.
Valerie studied creative writing and music at Pennsylvania State University. Her work has been seen in Sheila-Na-Gig, The Write Launch, River Heron Review, Kalliope, Willard and Maple, Cathexis Northwest Press, Duck Lake Journal, Saint Paul Almanac, on the literary podcast, Apertures, and in a poetry anthology curated by poet Victor Klimoski. Professionally, she is a violist and orchestra librarian with the Minnesota Orchestra.