Measure for Measure

I'd rather tell you about your father wilting in
Smelling like beer and pine and kissing your mother,

Or watercress up to our knees three paces from your horse's grave
Or the sparrow hawks we found abandoned in the eaves

And fed road-kill until they could fly.
I'd rather tell you about the field of chest high grass

And walking to the reservoir, the path corrugated
Root and dirt and leaves rotting in their marinade,

That wet paper bag and cinnamon smell,
Monarch chrysalises in every mason jar.

I'd rather tell you about your mother teaching us to waltz,
The bobbins we unraveled, running, and the kites,

Throwing eggs at the pigs and peeling birch bark,
Change in a coffee tin and once, a kiss.

But all I remember is shooting you in the neck
With a pellet gun as you moved out of sight

And your mother rushing out of the house
Pulling you into the car, and you not even crying yet

But bleeding, and me lying in the driveway
On my stomach, still looking down the barrel at the can.

—Lizzy Straus

Three Princess Tales

1.
Once upon a time there was a princess trapped in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Many valiant young princes attempted to save her, but each was burnt to a crisp by the dragon. Eventually the princes stopped coming and the princess lived alone in the tower. In her abundant free time, however, she made many important contributions to topology and number theory. The dragon allowed her to leave the tower to attend the Illinois Number Theory Fest, where her research was received with great acclaim. She ran away with a cryptologist and the dragon died of a broken heart.

2.
Once upon time there was a princess who was the most beautiful princess in all the land. A jealous enchantress turned the princess into a statue and hid her in a garden surrounded by a perilous forest. A brave and handsome prince hacked through the man-eating trees, leaped over the poison rosebeds, and muted the howling topiary. He finally found the stone princess trapped in writhing iron ivy. He chopped away at the ivy furiously, at last reaching the princess, but in his haste he cut off her nose. He kissed the stony lips and she fell, soft and warm and breathing and noseless, into his strong arms. He took her back to her parents, the king and queen, on his white stallion. They were overjoyed to see their daughter and offered the prince her hand in marriage. He bowed graciously and admitted that, though she was still very beautiful, he could not marry a princess without a nose.

3.
Once upon a time there was a princess who was born in perfectly ordinary circumstances and grew up to be rather ordinary looking. She had no fairy godmother or evil stepmother; she had no curses or special powers. She tried to prick her fingers on spindles and eat poisoned apples and get captured by forest creatures, but she only ended up with mild infections and stomach pains and poison ivy. When she was of age she was married off to a very nice prince who was prematurely balding but excellent in bed. Their rule was just and compassionate, and they lived happily ever after for six and a half decades. Years after her death everyone spoke of her fondly but no one could remember her name.

—Julia Kalow