National Poetry Month : Shaindel Beers,

 

 

 

Question

“Someday somebody’s gonna ask you a question that you should say ‘yes’ to.” –  “Question” Old 97’s

My mother started my imprisonment early. Subscribed me to bridal magazines,
said, “Maybe some nice boy will marry you,” like this was the solution
to everything—my father’s rages, my failure to comprehend algebra. Was thrilled
when I was fifteen and a nineteen year-old gave me a ring.

She answered the phone and told boys, “Yes, she’d be happy to,” without
even handing me the handset. I went. It didn’t matter that it was to drug deals
on the back of a motorcycle—He was tall with dark hair and blue-green
eyes. That I went with a twenty-five year-old and his daughter to see

The Lion King at the drive-in. That I rode on a moped with a man
who had lost his license for drunk driving. I was Lucy Westenra
of the trailer park. I was never told that my pretty mouth could shape
the word “No.” Did I always want to be a princess locked in a tower?

She needed to get rid of me. She had three other children to raise.
I was a doll with a painted-on face. Always being toted somewhere.
I’ve lost the last twenty years. Don’t remember who I was at the beginning
of the story—Once upon a time, In olden times when wishing still helped—

Before—There once was a young woman. Just once, I’d like to read
a story where the prince hacks through the brambles, scales the tower,
finds the glass coffin—
                                       discovers the door’s been locked from the inside.

 

 

 

 

Shaindel Beers is the author of three full-length poetry collections, A Brief History of Time (2009) and The Children's War and Other Poems (2013), both from Salt Publishing, and Secure Your Own Mask (2018), from White Pine Press. She teaches at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon, where she lives with her son Liam, her husband Matt, and a menagerie of pets. She serves as Poetry Editor of Contrary Magazine. Learn more at http://shaindelbeers.com.