Red Riding Wolf
I’m not the glass-slipper type.
You can’t make me.
You can’t break me.
And you can’t wish me gone.
By midnight?
Forget it.
I’m your sleepy-time poison.
I’m your apple.
Rub me.
Shine me.
Bite me twice a day.
They’ll be no doctors.
No princesses either,
I’m afraid.
Are you?
Don’t be.
Oblivion’s rather nice
this time of year.
Even if I’m not.
You’ll still come.
In this gutter.
You dig?
No?
Let me explain.
You dug.
Now you fill.
You crawl on your knees.
If I command.
And if I don’t?
Then you’re free.
To open your eyes.
And smile.
Until you remember.
Ever after
can be broken.
In a blink.
Bio:
A.J. Huffman is a poet and freelance
writer in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has previously published her
work in literary journals, in the U.K. as well as America, such as
Avon Literary Intelligencer, Eastern
Rainbow, Medicinal Purposes Literary Review, The Intercultural
Writer's Review, Icon, Writer's Gazette,
and The Penwood Review.