{"id":1787,"date":"2018-08-20T08:24:44","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T15:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2018-08-19T11:37:01","modified_gmt":"2018-08-19T18:37:01","slug":"in-my-fairy-mothers-old-age-by-eleanna-castroianni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/?p=1787","title":{"rendered":"In My Fairy Mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Old Age by Eleanna Castroianni"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nI.<\/p>\n

Before sunrise I tie rags around my ankles.<\/p>\n

Blades of grass lick my legs as I fatten
\nwith dew. Your fairy throat can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t swallow
\nthe other kinds of water. Your lips soften
\ndough-like butterflies. I wring the<\/p>\n

tatters of my homespun dress.
\nYour paralysis breaks, your hands
\ntwo dragonflies — they waver — your wings
\ncobwebs, encrusted in a woodland case of sores.<\/p>\n

I bathe you, comb you, dress you
\nmimic your motions with a decade-old delay.
\nRaising children must be like
\nsowing yourselves in the ground.<\/p>\n

II.<\/p>\n

Before sunrise I tie rags around my ankles.<\/p>\n

Blades of grass lick my legs as I fatten
\nwith dew, as my calves grow slower
\nand slower, as I drag my feet
\nthrough dirt. Once I found your stolen shawl<\/p>\n

Buttery-white, hidden by father so
\nyou would not leave us. You said you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want it
\nand smiled. Your teeth started falling
\none by one. You crushed them into sugar<\/p>\n

— for me. Your hair started thinning
\nbraid after braid. You turned it into flour
\n— for me. Your eyes rolled on the ground —
\nyou made them into soup — for me, for me.<\/p>\n

If you could cut yourself in pieces and
\nbake them in the oven — one arm pie, one leg roll —
\nyou would, you would — for me. Because
\nfairy mothers think their<\/p>\n

children ought to devour them.<\/p>\n

III.<\/p>\n

Before sunrise I tie rags around my ankles.<\/p>\n

Blades of grass lick my legs, as I fatten
\nwith dew, as my calves grow slower
\nand slower, as I drag my feet
\nthrough dirt, as I listen to the rust<\/p>\n

of tatters, of my homespun dress
\nof the rags around my ankles, heavy
\nwith dew — for you, for you. Mother,
\nyou always tasted bitter. The songs<\/p>\n

you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sing, the flights
\nyou didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fly. This is my dowry
\nand this
\nis my inheritance.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/p>\n

Before sunrise I tie rags around my ankles
\n— I breathe, I breathe —
\nblades of grass lick my legs
\nmy rugs, my chains, as I fatten<\/p>\n

with dew, as my calves grow slower
\nand slower, as I drag my feet
\nthrough dirt
\nand walk
\nthrough meadows
\nand my lips crave<\/p>\n

for morning dew.<\/p>\n

Illustration for ” Drottningens halsband ” (The queens necklace<\/i>) by Anna Wahlenberg in “Bland tomtar och troll” (Among gnomes and trolls<\/i>), 1914.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I. Before sunrise I tie rags around my ankles. Blades of grass lick my legs as I fatten with dew. Your fairy throat can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t swallow the other kinds of water. Your lips soften dough-like butterflies. I wring the tatters of my homespun dress. Your paralysis breaks, your hands two dragonflies — they waver — your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1787"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787\/revisions\/1790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.polutexni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}