[Hilary Biehl]

Spoils

Then for the first time – both feet on the ground
and finding his land legs again, while the hen
laid gold and his mother clucked her approval
at last – Jack noticed the world wore a shine
that flattened it somehow, as if all the shadows
had sizzled away in an infinite noon.

He leaned on the gate and it wheezed a little.
The air was dead, not even a breeze
today. Near the shed the beanstalk lay
across that impossible body. Jack’s head
ached now in the light, but hadn’t it been
much brighter up there in the windswept house?

He remembered curtains, adrift like clouds,
and the woman, the bitter taste of her bread.
The faded glow of the oven in which
he’d hidden. The warmth of the pantry he’d raided.
The glitter of spoons. The voice of the harp
that wouldn’t sing now, whatever he did.


Changes:

changed comma in S1L1 to a dash
S1L3 was “laid gold and his mother clucked her approval – ”
S1L4 was “for the first time, Jack noticed the world wore a shine”