Letter E: The Education of Little Miss Muffet
After Father died, I had all the wrong thoughts.
Step-Father, a Man of Science, prescribes Spiders:
For My Condition. Both Common, and Endangered,
crumpled onto teatime curds, or confined within
sentient globules of butter. One writhes in a nutshell,
when threaded at the neck. For Fever, or Ungovernable Emotion.
On occasion, they forget their lines. Some erupt
from labelled bottles he keeps all over the house. Step-Father,
Perturbed by my bouts of shrieking - (How he creeps
in my chamber at night. Those hairy legs. Tufted!
I can’t stand the sight) - then it’s Off! to the Hysterium!
Little Miss, must rest. Were he takes away my journals,
(and then nothing happens but the silk wallpaper)
leaves me only his hornbook made of gingerbread
with Arachnids, discretely beaten into the batter.
It was the most concentrated moment of my life.
I listen with my ankles in case Father is watching.
In my abdomen I make thoughts trace diaphanous lines
silken striping diagonal all the way to the sill
of the high turret window. What patience!
when climbing one two seven ten eleven then, down
the sticky rungs of the lattice sometimes the room
tilts getting mixed in with the pudding (feminine foot-
steps in the hall could belong to anyone) I am spinning.
— from Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead by Erina Harris. Published by Wolsak & Wynn. © 2024 by Erina Harris. Used with permission of Wolsak & Wynn.
Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead by Erina Harris.
About Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead:
In Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead, Erina Harris works with fairy tales, children’s literature, mythology and feminist literary history to ask important questions of gender, of queerness, of misogyny and of the role of art in social change. These are brilliant, innovative poems, where Harris displays an exceptional mastery of both traditional and experimental forms to examine versions of our endangered future. Vibrant, disruptive and always questioning, Harris invites us all to upend tradition and engage deeply with the modern world.
Poet Erina Harris. Photo credit: Evan Will.
About Erina Harris:
Erina Harris is a Canadian writer, educator and mentor. Her first book, The Stag Head Spoke (Buckrider Books, 2014), was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. A graduate and Fellow of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her work has been published widely, translated and awarded multiple prizes including international residencies. She lives and teaches in Edmonton, Alberta.