Little Red Riding Hood

I walk, I walk into the forest
and I know that along the way
I will intentionally meet you
As we were taught as children
I shout your name
and hope to easily recognize you.

But wherever we may be
no matter what we wear from the beginning
our childhood costumes
you always come to me unrecognizable
through bushes and threats
to introduce yourself.

I borrow deer eyes
every time
I raise my expectations
white sails, freshly ironed.
I then stifle pleas
and I speak to you.

But you sell every truth of mine
and with unimaginable sums
you buy it.
Your hands change:
they tear from your clothes
every fine thread.
They never stop, they flutter.

Your mouth distends:
it dresses a foreign forest
that sharpens the present
and like a wild beast
it becomes fierce.
You shout every syllable
as if my hearing was killed on the road
and whatever is spoken from my mouth
you maim.

Crowned king
you fit within your hands
and you do not consider
how time becomes rhyme
our time walks stooped
and you do not turn back.