Alexa Doran

“I don’t want you to says he’s a killer”

Oh honey I am   angry too.
Hansel and Gretel felt this
same gravity        when they finally
saw through the heady          scent

of too much peppermint   to the gnarl
of licorice      and bone    broth whose
steam left their bodies       limp
as used     hankies. Still Americans

had so much more warning
than two fairy tale children
banished to the open axle of forest.
I do not want to forgive

the President or   teach you
your cheek is your best defense
against men       who believe life
is better embezzled than    spent.

Like most parents I      Disney dye
my description:    us v. the acid orange
villain, Trump the bad        word, flung
like excrement    but I won’t cover

the shit soak        of his stained wild linen
won’t let it        moisten into legend
instead I treat it like a socket    like
the pivot in my slingshot

Alexa Doran’s collection DM Me, Mother Darling won the 2020 May Sarton Poetry Prize and will be published by Bauhan Publishing in April 2021. She’s also the author of the chapbook Nightsink, Faucet Me a Lullaby (Bottlecap Press 2019). For a full list of publications, awards, and interviews visit alexadoran.com