Red Riding Hood NSFW- Three Variations


Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

Once I saw what was coming,
why did I do nothing to stop it,
to save my daughter?
Her grass stained cape, her wine breath
should have been evidence enough.
Why did I tell myself
that the cake I saw, crushed beside the path,
belonged to a careless woodcutter’s lunch?
Her lies were so young
and so clumsy:
“Grandma is getting worse,
She won’t remember my visits
five minutes after I leave.”
Now my only daughter is truly gone.
Fled to the wolf’s lair?
To a distant village?
All night the forest branches creak
and accuse outside the window
of my cottage.
Why did I never tell her
that my own hood
was moss colored velvet,
that her father
was a flame-red fox?


Grandma and the Hunter

Alarmed by the animal sounds from inside,
Red Riding Hood and her Wolf
burst into my cottage.
The Hunter and I laughed
at the little O’s
made by their mouths and eyes.
My granddaughter slammed the door,
but no matter.
I could never have explained to her
how I have waited a lifetime
to be caught
by the warm, certain hands
of this grizzled Hunter.
Run and then lie down
in the wild, cold woods
in the snow dazzled noon
with your Wolf, my dear girl.
I will stay here,
bedded with my Hunter,
trapped in breathless ecstasy,
freed.


The Wolf and the Hunter

Now that Grandma
is a warm lump in my belly,
now that the red hood
is a bright flame
flickering, fleeing
into the forest,
come to me.
I will praise your hunter’s body,
only slightly less furred
than my own.
We are both forest creatures.
We are not frightened
of one another’s teeth,
different and the same,
of one another’s sharp cries,
of our shared wildness.