Two Poems

I ALWAYS THOUGHT

Cinderella
Was a real story

I thought
She lived in Lincoln
And that I would meet her Later in college

I knew her mom
Daylight
And her sisters
Tick & Tock

I didn’t have to convince her
To go swimming with me
In the Missouri in January
I couldn’t She would always
Say Not now Wait Die later

IN SOME WAYS

Cinderella
Is related to ashes

My ashes?
The urn
I’m going to bivouac through all eternity in?

Look
She would say
The moonlight
Is only a reflection

The charm bracelet
She asked me to keep
Held nine tiny figures
Each skeletal One
For each month [She whispered] in my mother’s womb