Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [The Wendy girl]

Jenny Boully

The Wendy girl will live longer than you; the Never bird will live longer than you; the wayward thing will be taken to wife (unlike you, who will never be taken to wife), and she too will live longer than you. Shoot her down, shoot her down, you say. And down comes the Wendy bird, and down comes the Peter bird to say who has done this? And you’re shut up in your little house again, and all around you, the various fairy birds a-dying, a-falling away from the Neverland, hanging cocoon corpses in Never trees for the Never worm, for the Never bees.

The more Alice reaches out, the more her dream-rushes

disappear: one by one by one the darling scented rushes sink back into melt. In the dream stream, the boat glides past too quick, and there is no chance to gather the loveliest of the dream-rushes. No less satisfying was the old sheep: so many knitting needles, dozens and dozens all pierced into a ball of worsted, and there was never ever any telling of just what, even in dream, it might be that the old sheep was knitting.

Jenny Boully

2010

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [If she lays out two spoons]

If she lays out two spoons (two real spoons) and two forks (two real forks), will he come then to take part in a meal that is wholly imaginary? The food was never real, the food was never really real and so to send them to bed without, to send them to bed without a meal, hardly meant anything.

Jenny Boully

2008

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [But the rocking chair]

But the rocking chair appears to be missing a little something. If you hang the birdcage there, we'll hear its singing. Keep the curtains sheer drawn over the four poster—that’s the kind of bed I would like to have. I will can the preserves; I will can the preserves so that come autumn, come autumn when I have hung up the dustpan, you will have this small bit of apricot to remember. Me by. I don’t think I quite believe in that anymore, and besides, this here tooth has fallen out; it's the last one I've needed for quite a while.

Jenny Boully

2008

Poems

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [The Wendy girl]

More by this poet

The more Alice reaches out, the more her dream-rushes

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [If she lays out two spoons]

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [But the rocking chair]

Poems

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Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [The Wendy girl]

More by this poet

The more Alice reaches out, the more her dream-rushes

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [If she lays out two spoons]

Not Merely Because of the Unknown That Was Stalking Toward Them [But the rocking chair]

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