once a daughter came to harm in tender woodland night pin-boned by two velvet arms and turned a bloodless white
when cried out the mothers, “oh, who done this deed tonight?” i tied a ribbon round my throat to hide the silver’s bite
and i hear the echoes of my mother, as the smile carved her neck, gentle and red-filled as a lover: "beware them who call you daughter"
what my gentle father teaches is to honor what we slay but i split a devil into pieces, and i threw the bones away
one man, he would’ve called that wasteful another would call it a crime but the third, he proudly found it tasteful and put his hand in mine
and i hear the echoes of my mother, as the smile carved her neck, gentle and red-filled as a lover: "beware them who call you daughter"
if my tale becomes a whisper out of their maneating mouths know that those same lips once kissed her: their daughter, so devout
and i hear the echoes of my mother, as the smile carved her neck, gentle and red-filled as a lover: "beware them who call you daughter"
my tears are wiped by steady fingers as the smile carves my neck and he whispers, gentle as a lover, his belly fed, as i am bled: he calls me “daughter”