Matty Layne Glasgow

Fairy Drag Mother Reads Cinderella For Filth

My child—Time, like men, is an unrelenting spell.
One moment, you lift your gown down the steps
of your carriage life. The next, you lie here dirty
in your tragic rags on the remnants of some broken
gourd. Get yourself up out of the pumpkin. There,
there. Where is the other slipper? Do you know
how long it took to find a size twelve in this
prince-foresaken kingdom? Nevermind. Keep it.
Hop around on a lone glass heal. When you fall,
wipe your eyes with a fraying hem. You have
so many to choose from. Stop crying. We can’t
return to the spent spell. What is lost is lost—
a ravaged dress may shine anew. Bibbidi bobbidi
boo fucking hoo. I wore a crown once, too. Oh,
how I hovered lustre-drunk in palatial light. Look
at me now: all magic & apparition for my girls
ill-frocked in despair. What I learned, I’ve already
told you. No man or hour can unleash what is yours
to show. I saw vested birds & mice clad in every color
drape & sew a gown for you. What power remains
in my ancient bones that you do not possess?

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Matty Layne Glasgow's debut collection, deciduous qween, was selected by Richard Blanco for the 2017 Benjamin Saltman Award and is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in June 2019. His recent work appears in or is forthcoming from the Missouri Review, Crazyhorse, Poetry Daily, Denver Quarterly, Grist, Houston Public Media and elsewhere. Matty lives in Houston where he teaches with Writers in the Schools.